Weekend accounting

Oh what a huge amount of money I spent on Saturday. I went to the NATAS travel fair at Suntec City in the morning in the hopes of finding a good deal for my May trip to Australia. And indeedy, I did. It was worth it waking up early and braving the crowds (of which it wasn't so considerable at 10am) and one persistent and sickeningly cheery Prudential girl. I was so confident I wouldn't be able to find a better deal elsewhere, I paid for the ticket upfront, with the exception of airport tax, to be paid on collection of the ticket.

In the glow of my find, I did some retail therapee and bought a pair of shoes, a top and sunblock. Just like that. Normally I prowl around for hours, but the amount of time it took for all these purchases was just under 2 hours. Wow, I'm getting good at this.

Numbers time
Air ticket to Australia on Emirates: $480 (not including tax)
Aldo shoes (watch out for it in ShooStories!): $99.90
A French Connection truffle of a halter top: $79
The Natural Source baby sunblock, 2 tubes (one for me, one for a friend's baby): $28.50

In other news, I caught In Good Company. I enjoyed it, even though it wasn't quite the comedy I expected it to be. It did have its laugh out loud moments, but it was more a movie of quiet and subtle humour and feeling. That's a good thing. I liked how the movie was real, and didn't have the usual romantic mush ending so typical of most Hollywood fare. And of course, I always enjoy watching Topher Grace in his intellectual loser roles. Although, it's time he switched focus before he gets typecasted.

Just when I thought this was another boring workday...

...I get this email in my office mailbox:

From: Corporate Communications
Sent: Friday, March 18, 2005 1:43 PM
Subject: NTU Staff for MediaCorp Game Show

Hi colleagues,

Mediacorp is interested in having 5 NTU staff participate in their upcoming matchmaking programme: 缘 来 就 是 你. Comprising 13 episodes, the programme will be broadcast over Channel U starting 5 Apr (Tues), at 9:15pm.

About the programme:

• Hosted by Kym Ng and Quan Yi Feng.
• Programme will first feature 5 participants in their work environment.
• The hosts will 'interview' the 5 participants and play games with them. The hosts will then make the final decision on who will proceed to the second part of the programme where they search for their 'soul-mate'.
• On the following weekend, the hosts and one selected contestant will move to another location (shopping mall or Orchard Road) to search for four potential “soul mates” in order to perfect the match.
• Finally, the contestant will pick the lucky one whom he/ she thinks is their Ms/ Mr Right. The perfect couple will get the top prizes.
  Note: There are no other obligations beyond the gameshow. The ‘matchmaking’ is basically an opportunity for participants to know more friends.

Requirements as stated by Mediacorp:

• Single, in their 20s or 30s.
• Lively, look good on camera, and not shy about being on TV (and being filmed playing simple interactive games).
• Able to speak simple Mandarin.

I see two motives behind this programme:
1) NTU wants to be seen as hip and widdit. SMU got happy jumping people on their billboards, NUS got cool-Levis-wannabe ad, so we one-up them and produce a TV show. That'll show them.
2) Government is worried about single people not getting married and producing babies. So, brainwave: we use uni staff (egghead kind) and hep them find their soulmate. Sure people will get married and make babies after this.

I don't know about the 'lively' and 'look good on camera' part. From what I've seen of the staff around campus, this does not augur well. Oh, I can't wait for this to be aired.

Wishlist (part deux)

To wear:

(From Revolve Clothing) Rock and rugged. I'll take two please...

The buying bug has bitten again ever since Retail Therapy called and said they were having a sale. Would like a new pair of jeans and have discovered Chip & Pepper. My sister has a new pair of C&P and I sneakily tried it on when she wasn't looking and the fit is oh-so-good! I find it really hard to find jeans and really envy all those boyish-figured girls who look so good in Levis. I just look lumpy in them. For me, the best pairs of jeans I've had so far are my Citizens of Humanity and Marcs.

To adorn:

I'm loopy for you...

ShooStories: My Arabian fantasy

#2

The Shoo: Arabian Diva (I like to pretend I'm Princess Jasmine from Aladdin hurhur)
Circa: December 2003
Where: Shoo shop called "The Shoe Connection" in a massive mall called Times Square in KL

The Story: I was in KL on another one of my visits to my dad, with my mum and sister, and we were out shopping (as usual). We were curious to see what Times Square had to offer. Perhaps we would unearth more exciting finds. The first shop we saw as we came off the escalator from the carpark was this one; it didn't look particularly exciting at first glance but I always believe in giving chances.

And true enough, I found this exotic-looking pair lurking in a corner. They were available in a few colours - black, beige and white. I'm not one for flat shoes as I think they tend to make my calves look a little chubba, but these were too pretty sparkly to resist. Sqeuins will do that to me. Spent the next 15 min deciding between black or beige, parading up and down, while my dad looked on and told me to hurry up and aiyah, just buy both lah.

Wishlist

To read:

Reading Lolita in Tehran
Azar Nafisi

A Wild Sheep Chase
Haruki Murakami

Howl's Moving Castle
Diana Wynne Jones

Something Rotten
Jasper Fforde

To listen:

Genius Loves Company
Ray Charles

Blue
Cowboy Bebop soundtrack

Samurai Champloo
Soundtrack

To watch:

Team America: World Police & Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

Thoughts going through the noodle while watching Hitch

• Will Smith sure has big ears
• But he's still hot
• Aww the streets of New York. Wish I were there again.
• I love Eva Mendes' outfits.
• And her hair.
• Ohmygosh...her curves! She's so hot!
• OK seriously, she's a gossip columnist for a trashy paper. How can she afford to live in such a nice apartment in NY??
• Ditto for Will.
• Kevin James looks like a big teddy bear.
• Hmm Amber Valletta isn't too bad an actor.

Verdict: Enjoyable Saturday night movie. Not too cuddly mushy to the point that it's nauseating, although the ending felt a bit contrived. If it weren't for Will Smith and Kevin James, it probably wouldn't have been so funny.