The national costume segment of the Miss Universe pageant is starting to be like a freak show.
I blame Brazil and I blame Victoria Secrets.
People must understand that only Brazil can pull off the Mardi Gras peacock thingie. Everything else would be a lame copy and WILL look STUPID at best.
Then we have Victoria Secrets with their huge angel wings during their lingerie show.
Now comes the ultimate disaster. Marrying the two AND slapping a national theme to it.
So without further ado, I present to you the Number One Guanyin-Buddha-Jesus-Krishna-OptimusPrime FACEPALM costume of Miss Universe 2014.
Miss Canada!
To tweet this in 140-characters or less.
It's a "14-hockey-legged spider with a goal post in between her legs".
Classy.
Real classy.
The only consolation is to this is that our Singapore one was NOT LAST.
Our Discarded-TV-Antennae-Found-Behind-Sungei-Road-Hardware-Shop ensemble was narrowly beaten into second place.
Damn you, Canada!! Damn you! *waves angry fist*
Oh and by the way, I think our stars long time never water liao. All starting to wilt
Despite the fact that MINDEF has never said that they will buy the problem-after-problem-after-problematic F35 Joint Strike Fighter, the word in the coffee shop, for years, has been pointing in that direction of the Singapore gahmen's unwavering determination to angkat American bola.
If you die die must buy the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, may I suggest you try looking for it in taobao.com. It's probably in there somewhere. You just need the correct keyword in Chinese to find it. Confirm cheaper.
p.s. Do I get money for helping MINDEF save money under the WITS program ah?
It has been a secret till this day that I think back of that fateful afternoon when Steven was rushed back to the office not breathing and not beating.
I was shrouded, ever since, with a cloud of self-doubt playing back that scene repeatedly and asked myself if there was anything I didn't do right?
Why was I not able to save him?
OH how I would have savoured the sweetest Tiger beer he would buy me when he recovers! All the plans to make him my bitch thereafter twarted!
For the uninitiated, I was referring to that one day back in the late 90s.
That old article (above) from Wall Street Journal was a good read by the way but it was that one sentence that resonated a chord within me.
So many of us had gone through the CPR course but how many of us has actually put it to use in real life? So all along, we thought this would the the life saver as long as it is within 7 minutes of the casualty's last breath.
Nobody mentioned the grim stats of success rate then.
I felt a relief when I read that and told myself that it is time to let it go and stop kicking myself over it.
RIP Steven. We missed ya.
p.s. Just because the stats of success if less than optimistic, it doesn't mean giving up altogether. I would still encourage everyone to learn CPR. A 0.000001% success rate may still mean saving the life of that someone out there.
It's a Sunday and this is the time I spend mucking around the house doing a little Tim "The Toolman" Taylor.
Today's assignment was the fluorescent tube in the common bathroom that has gone out the day before. A quick stop at the DIY store across the street and I had the tube replaced in double quick time.
A flick of the switch et...... nothing.
Aw... nuts. It's the ballast that has gone to ballast heaven. The old tube which I now suspect was still alive, was already disposed of already.
So armed with the new tube and the old ballast, I headed down to the store once again.
The tube tested ok and so it was confirmed that the problem was indeed the ballast.
JayWalk: (Showing her the ballast) 我要买这个. 这个叫什么?
China Lady Store Manager: Ballast.
JayWalk: Har? 我也知道叫 "ballast". 中文怎么讲?
Store Manager: 不知道.
JayWalk: （Gives the "您来自中国不知道这个中文怎么说?" one-raised-eyebrow look).
Store Manager: （Gave back the "七早八早你是来给老娘添乱的是么?" death stare)
JayWalk: *quietly exit stage right*
TIL: Ballast for the fluorescent tube is known as "镇流器“， according to the description on the box.
Just when I thought the last time I had "Bird Food" was just a while ago, it dawned on me that 3 years have already flown by.
Wow. How time passes!
So anyway, during my last trip back in June 2014, I decided to pack more seeds and nuts back to QQland.
This time round, my mix is:
Walnuts
Cashew Nuts
Pumpkin Seeds
Almonds
Wolfberries
I did away with black sesame seeds as they have a tendency to get stuck in between you teeth and really ugly when you smile. I added wolfberries for its health benefits and also the fact that there was a special offer.
No pine nuts nor sunflower seeds as there was no stock that day.
As usual, all of them are unsalted with the exception of the pumpkin seeds.
The wolfberries are quite nice but I made the mistake of buying too much which made the entire mix tasted off. It didn't help that they have a tendency to clump together and so you can imagine when I bit into a big chunk of it.
p.s. Yeah. It was the same tupperware, I used the last time round. Still good and tight sealed as ever.
By right, I should be featuring the match winning point above but Lisicki won that on account of Schiavone's double fault and so essentially, it wasn't a point worth my top billing. Instead, I put up Schiavone's save of the first match point.
I was in Hong Kong two weeks ago to watch the semi-final games but was too busy to update it on my blog until now.
Anyway, the other semi-final was between relatively unknown duo of Pliskova (Karolina) and Van Uytvanck.
Er.... who?
Anyway, it was a b-o-r-i-n-g match and kudos to the organisers for having the foresight to place them as the first semi-final of the day where at 3pm in the hot afternoon, the place was about 1/4 filled.
There were sparks of brilliance from time to time between these two ITF graduates but they have a long way to go as far as paying their dues is concerned before being able to be regarded as serious contenders in the big league.
The disparity in levels between Lisicki and Pliskova was evident in the final the next day as latter young padawan was schooled 7-5, 6-3.
Coming back to the semi-final between Lisicki and Schiavone, everyone was rooting for the underdog Italian as the 34 year-old put up a gutsy display against the German who is 9 years younger.
We were awed by her never-say-die attitude as she hunted down every stray ball covering every squared inch of the court.
Win or lose, as far as the point was concerned, was met with big applause from everyone. Perhaps it was everyone's way, including mine, giving her an "A" for effort.
Eventually, youthfulness triumphed as Lisicki takes the title 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.
My thought next, goes to the tournament itself. The Prudential Hong Kong Tennis Open 2014 is a tiny tournament where the winner goes home with just 280 ranking points. This compared to the Grand Slams (2000 points) and the WTA Premier Events e.g. the current ongoing Wuhan Open 2014 (900 points). The down side to this is that with fewer ranking points and smaller prize money, you aren't going to attract as many big names. In fact, for this particular tournament the top seed was eventual Sabine Lisicki and she was ranked back then as 28th. We won't be expecting the likes of Sharapova, Williams, Kvitova etc to grace the event.
The up side on the other hand is that smaller tournament means smaller venue, means we are up closer to the action. And yeah, cheaper ticket prices too.
p.s. My favourite day of the tournament is actually the quarter-finals where, IMHO, the ticket price gives you the best value for money. The price of the ticket grants you 4 matches to watch in a single sitting. Compare this to the more expensive semi-finals (2 matches) and most expensive ticket final (1 match). Earlier rounds can be boring as players hold back on the throttle to avoid peaking too early and so the quarter-finals is the turning point where players step up their gear in terms of play intensity as they are just a mere two steps from victory.
This is a video of Faith's drawing. It is a time-lapsed video capture and so no. She didn't draw THAT fast.
We started noticing her interest in drawing anime characters and her obsession with creating stuff on Minecraft. For those who have fallen behind in terms of technology, it's a digital low-res version of lego or nanoblocks.
Anyway, when we first saw her drawings, we were like...
... this kid's got a bit of talent. What I initially thought was just a knack coupled with hours and hours spent glued to youtube tutorials (which kinda explained her plunging grades in P5).
After watching this video, I stand corrected.
I don't recall us sending her to any art classes after school. I believed she just happened to pick things up herself.
I am impressed.
Perhaps yellow brick road is laid down for her already. Let's send her to arts school. Yes?
Who knows she may even be in the CGI FX team for Star Wars IX. Who knows?
p.s. I can see the generation gap getting wider. Gone are the days where it is just a pencil/pen and paper.
p.p.s. Perhaps I should get her to meet Grasshopper?
