Grateful 6 Mar: Ex-Colleagues

It’s a lovely day to be able to catch up with old colleagues and reminisce about those corporate life days. It’s been 3 years and much has changed. Names were mentioned, many of whom I do not know. And for those that I do know, some have been promoted and many have also left the company - either joining another organisation or taking a career break. I therefore want to give thanks for: 

• My Ex-Team. Despite having left 3 years ago, we have remained in constant contact, catching up with one another over simple meals and sharing updates on the developments in our respective lives. We are more friends than just ex-colleagues now and I am thankful for that. In addition, they have also come to me individually whenever they need advice about work, career, life, professional development and so on. I am also thankful for the support they have all extended to me when I needed it. 

• Simple Conversations. One of the topics we spoke about during our catch-up was movies, and the song “Tian Mi Mi” (甜蜜蜜) came up. It was such a coincidence as this was the theme song of the movie I watched yesterday: Comrades: Almost a Love Story (1996). It made for good banter and sharing since we were talking about all sorts of topics during our 2 - 3 hour catch-up, jumping from movies to work memories and back again. Moments like these also remind me how simple conversations can unexpectedly connect different experiences across time.

• Another Ex-Colleague. I met up with another ex-colleague after lunch. It was meant to be a quick meet-up to pass her some traditional pastries, but we ended up having a quick drink and catch-up instead. I meet up with her rather regularly, and she had volunteered as my coachee during the months leading up to my obtaining my coaching credentials 2 years ago. It was nice to catch up again, and I am thankful to her for her time. 

Looking back, what stands out most from these catch-ups is the camaraderie we nurtured during our time in the office. The many good and bad moments we went through together continue to bind us long after we left the company. And I am especially grateful that although I was their HOD back then, they are still able to connect with me without too much difficulty. This reinforces my belief that friendship can be forged after we leave our company. For that, I am grateful.

Grateful 5 Mar: Abundance

I woke up today feeling good, knowing that I have managed to clear most of the weight I gained over the past week or so. It was a reassuring start to the day, and it reminded me that with a bit of discipline and consistency, things can be brought back into balance again. The day itself went by rather routinely - with my usual exercises, work, and quiet moments in between. I also had a visit from B, who had just returned from his hometown. This visit end up being the highlight of the day. So today, I find myself grateful for the following: 

• Dinner & Food. B visited and brought dinner along with some food from his hometown. I am always touched by this simple but thoughtful gesture. Each time he goes home, he makes the effort to remember this friend of his and brings something back for me. Such thoughts and acts carry a great deal of warmth and kindness and I am deeply grateful of. 

• Lovely Evening. I also thank B for the nice evening chatting, listening to songs and catching up. He recommended and we watched Comrades: Almost a Love Story (1996) (picture above). It was such a lovely show! Watching Maggie Cheung and Leon Lai on screen again brought back a wave of nostalgia. And of course, hearing Teresa Teng’s songs once more added to that familiar, sentimental feeling. There was a great evening - not just from the film and music, but also the conversation, and the simple joy of spending time with a friend. Some films and songs seem to carry a timeless quality - they bring us back to another era and remind us of how certain emotions never really change. 

• Abundance Again. And so I end the day with plenty of food in my fridge once again! Not only from B, but also because my sis dropped by too and brought even more food. Just when I thought I had finally managed to clear most of the food in my fridge, it is now fully stocked again. Haha. It feels a little ironic, considering how hard I have been working to manage my weight. Nonetheless, I give thanks to these warmth and abundance. 

I end the day feeling rather full and slightly bloated and the cycle of weight gain and weight loss will have to begin all over again. But then again, this is hardly something to complain about. All the food in my fridge represents the care and generosity of people around me. In that sense, I remain deeply grateful to be surrounded by such warmth, not only from my sister, but also from friends who continue to remember me in their own quiet ways. A quiet abundance, indeed.

A Good Child

I don’t think I’ve ever written anything in this blog about a Singapore produced show. It’s largely because they tend to be very slapstick and superficial. And for me, who largely enjoys tear jerkers and epic movies, I wanna say I thoroughly enjoyed “A Good Child”.

I chanced upon it in Netflix today. Admittedly, I didn’t quite recognise the actors and decided to take a look. After all, the synopsis sounded interesting - a drag decided to look after her mother who’s suffering from dementia, or something along this line. Two minutes into the show, my jaw literally dropped - It’s a Singapore production! And there’re lotsa drag queens, Hokkien profanities, smoking etc! 

I must say I totally enjoyed it and I was blown away by the acting and the script. Very touching and I teared up at several points in the show. Perhaps Singapore shows have indeed improved over time! And oh, I must say the Taiwanese guy who acted as the drag queen’s boyfriend is really cute! Kawaii-des!

Like!

Senior Citizen

I watched Deadpool & Wolverine at the cinema today. 

With the M18 rating, the film did not feature too big amongst moviegoers. I thought the show was too violent, much much too violent. It's Deadpool after all, one might argue, but I still posit that the whole storyline could still be kept intact without all the gore, blood, and all... it’s hard to make sense of all the wanton slashing, chopping of limps, indiscriminate decapitation, etc. I closed my eyes whenever such scenes played out. But to be fair, there were some pretty good scenes that brought out the complex emotions of the characters, especially towards the end. And I certainly caught all the adult/ LGBTQ-jokes. On the whole, I kinda enjoyed the movie.

But this blog entry wasn’t meant to review the movie. I wrote this blog becos the cinema attendant cut me a senior citizen ticket without even verifying my age! Damn it! Do I really, really, finally, look like a senior citizen? Darned! I was momentarily dumbfounded and it took me a while to pay for my ticket. I didn't even know if I should feel sad or happy... hmmm... I supposed I was amused. And yes, the ticket cost me only $4.50 - a third of what it would usually cost if I were to watch on the eve of/ weekends. And for this price, I supposed all's good! I should watch more movies on weekdays henceforth!

:-)

WW84

Spoiler ahead. 

Well, I'm not gonna talk about the show per se but about the short clip after the show ended. It showed the back of a caped lady walking in a busy street. As she walked, an incident occurred. There was some commotion and suddenly a lamp post fell. There were screams and panic. But the caped lady saved the day. 

As the lamp post fell, she reached out and grabbed it before it fell onto the crowd... many of whom were women and children. A mother walked up the the caped lady to thank her. The caped lady turned around. And she's not Gal Gadot (much as we all expected her to be). Instead, we saw another familiar face... 

When I saw her, I actually screamed out like a man turned lunatic, and burst into tears! No joke, I actually burst into tears! Lynder Carter was a my all time favourite in the 70s/ 80s. She's THE Wonder Woman! That was indeed a magical moment for me! 

:-)

Jiang Ziya 姜子牙

Caught this show two weekends ago and was simply blown away by the graphics. 

Jiang Ziya is a real character in ancient China and is well documented in Chinese history books. He is also one of the central figure in the Chinese mythologies and deitified as one of the highest level deity in Taoist beliefs. And not many people realised that in modern Chinese art, he is depicted as an old man sitting by the river holding a fishing rod. Watching this movie really brings me back to my childhood where I hear stories about these gods and deities. And oh, I found it rather amusing how the new generation of story tellers in China incorporate elements of very human traits/ behaviours into these characters - like how they showed Jiang Gong is somewhat of an OCD.  

Super liked this animation!

Movies of 2019

I have continued with my regular movies this year. It has become a habit for me. I supposed it’s an escape for me after my workweek. I’ve followed some of the movies over the years and it didn’t feel right not to watch the sequel. And in this regard, it is certainly quite a bitter sweet feel to see some of the movies ending its run this year. These include Avengers, Star Wars, Ip Man as well as How to Train Your Dragon. 

The following lists what I watched in 2019:

Dec
Jumanji: The Next Level
The Garden of the Evening Mist
Knives Out
Two Tigers
Ip Man 4: The Finale
Star Wars Rise of Skywalker
Spies in Disguise

Nov
The Addams Family
Disney’s Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
The Abominable
Wet Season
Charlie’s Angels
The Cliff
The Cliff 2

Oct
Joker
The Farewell
Tracy
A Dog Barking at the Moon

Sep
Ne Zha
Good boys
Fagara

Aug
Racing in the Rain
Angel has fallen

Jul
Crayon Shin-chan Honeymoon Hurricane: The Lost Hiroshi
Spider-Man: Far From Home
Toy Story 4
Lion King
Doraemon Nobita’s Chronicles of the Moon
Coco
Mission impossible: Rouge Nation

Jun
Men in Black: International
X-men: Dark Phoenix

May
Pokémon Detective Pikachu
The Hustle
Capernaum (Arab movie)
A Dog’s Journey
Godzilla: King of the Monsters

Apr
Shazam
Hellboy
Marvel Endgame

Mar
Captain Marvel
Hotel Mumbai
Dumbo

Feb
Alita: Battle Angel
How to Train your dragon: the hidden world
Cold Pursuit

Jan

The Kid Who Would Be King

Jul 2019 Shows

These are the shows I watched in Jul 19...

• Crayon Shin-chan Honeymoon Hurricane: The Lost Hiroshi (3.5)
• Spider-Man: Far From Home (4)
• Toy Story 4 (4)
• Lion King (4)
• Doraemon Nobita's Chronicles of the Moon (3.5)
• Coco (4)
• Mission impossible: Rouge Nation (3.5)

Movies 2019

Here are the movies I've watched over the last half year. I think there are a few more but I cannot recall them all...

Jun

X-men: Dark Phoenix

Men in Black: International 

May

Capernaum (Arab movie)
Pokémon Detective Pikachu

The Hustle

A Dog's Journey

Godzilla: King of the Monsters

Apr

Shazam

Hellboy

Avengers: Endgame

Mar

Captain Marvel

Hotel Mumbai

Dumbo

Feb

Alita: Battle Angel

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

Cold Pursuit

Jan

The Kid Who Would Be King
Glass 

(and one more japanese anime)

and here are some of the movies I forgot to blog about in 2018...

• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
• Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
• Ralph Breaks the Internet
• Venom
• The House with a Clock in Its Walls
• Mission Impossible: Fallout

比悲傷更悲傷的故事 (More Than Blue)

This stroy-line of this movie was so sad, I laughed. Ok, to put in perspective, everyone around me cried buckets, including PZ. But frankly, when I suspected things were not so straightforward from the start of the show and took a third person point of view when I watched it. And when the story unfolded and proved my theory, it became funny. Without going into specifics, the following kinda described the show:

• He: I know I have a terminal illness, I don't want her to know.
• She: I know he has a terminal illness, and I know he doesn't want me to know. So I pretend I don't know, so that he will not suspect I know.

This framing took up almost 3/4 of the whole show. The show showed the story from the perspective of the guy. And people were crying buckets by now. And then 3/4 way through, similar scenes were repeated, but now told from the girls' perspective. That was when people started crying even more. The last 10 min of their show was:

• He: I now know she knows but it's too late. I'm dying soon.
• She: He knows now that I know, and I will try my best to look after him.

She brought him home from the hospital, and before they even could spend the night, he died. And she took her own life.

End of story.

Bumblebee

This is a rather draggy show and really made the bots too human-like. Kinda weird.

But overall, it was quite interesting show.

Aquaman

i thoroughly enjoyed this show. And watching how he commanded the sea creatures into battle towards the end of the movie reminded me of the cartoons I watched during my childhood. Hmmm... was it marine boy? Anyway, I enjoyed it thoroughly.

peppermint

watched the midnight show on friday night... what a waste of time. walked out halfway through the show. then again, watching the show was an excuse. 

hotel transylvania 3

tried too hard. i fell asleep... enuf said.

mission impossible - fallout

such a smooth show to watch. tom cruise never fail to carry off the mission impossible shows.  it was pure adrenaline rush from the start to the end. thoroughly enjoyed it.

crazy rich asians

for a start, let's not get too carried away with trying to compare this show to what real singapore life is... they are definitely different. in actual fact, the show actually showcased quite a bit of actors from both singapore and malaysia, and not forgetting - many scenes were also shot in different parts of malaysia. now that i've gotten this out of the way, i want to share that this show was really entertaining and surprisingly touching. and given the emotional state i was in, i ended up crying like a cry-baby during parts of the show. now, that is not very glam for a 51-plus year old person. but it was good that i have a hand to grab throughout the show.

ant-man and the wasp

enjoyed this show tremendously. excited to see the end-credit and the show clip. looks like the next avengers movie is gonna weave this show and thanos together. so looking forward to it.

incredibles 2

after a decade since the release of the first incredibles, i was really looking forward to watch this. and despite the relatively slow start and somewhat uneven pace, i found the show to be really fun. and of cos the highlight of the show was the baby! such a cute boy! 

jurassic world: fallen kingdom

i enjoyed this show despite the, at times, irregular pace. i do also want to add that there were times where the logic didn't really flow well. then again, it was good fodder for the soul after a long hard week. and just like all other shows, after the novelty of things (in this case, dinosaurs), it ends up tackling concepts that are very human - greed.

go watch.

solo: a star wars story

i particularly liked how this show brought everything about han solo together - his name, his early years, his views to things, how he met chewie and the underlying incidents that established the deep trust between them, how he got the spaceship (and how this linked the story back to the earlier movie empire), and why the ship was such a great navigator of the universe, etc.

nice!