现在很想见你
李吉汉

Verse 1:
昨晚上很开心有个梦
这个梦日日夜夜在心中
我撑开一把雨伞
展现我的勇敢
陪你走过热闹街头

Verse 2:
你突然握著了我的手
你一定感觉到我的颤抖
在耳边小声说话
说你心中的话
原来这是心有灵犀一点通

Chorus:
现在很想见你
要打电话给你
可是我的勇敢只在我梦里
和你去看电影
一起唱ktv
我的世界就更明亮

现在很想见你
如果你会答应
我会试著实现梦里的情境
拥抱你在街上
不怕别人眼光
你是我永远的梦想

repeat verse 2, chorus x 2.

Recently, I heard this nice song on the radio. Managed to find out it's 现在很想见你, sung by 李吉汉. 李吉汉 is a product of the Malaysian Idol. However, this song was recorded sometime back. They only promote this song in Singapore recently, despite the theme song was in the charts back when the album was released.

Anyway, I like this song. I find that the singer, lyrics, and melody combined well to give the feeling of a guy trying to woo the lady he likes. The stage where every smile and every positive response is met with the greatest estacy. The stage where the guy is trying his utmost to get cookie points from the girl. Sweet.

歌曲：不怕不怕 - 郭美美

MAI-A-HEE MAI-A-HU
MAI-A-HO MAI-A-HA-HA
MAI-A-HEE MAI-A-HU
MAI-A-HO MAI-A-HA-HA
MAI-A-HEE MAI-A-HU
MAI-A-HO MAI-A-HA-HA
MAI-A-HEE MAI-A-HU
MAI-A-HO MAI-A-HA-HA

Hello！看我！你在害怕什么？
是我错，没能够啊把自己变得成熟
伤口那么多 没地方可以再受伤了 (已经不怕再痛)
没什么 转身以后 我会练成护体神功！

看见蟑螂 我不怕不怕啦
我神经比较大 不怕不怕不怕啦
胆怯只会让自己更憔悴
麻痹也是勇敢表现

一个人睡也不怕不怕啦
勇气当棉被 不怕不怕不怕啦
夜晚再黑我就当看不见
太阳一定就快出现

The melody is taken from a dance mix song. Spanish if I remember correctly. I also heard that Crazy Frog got a version, but I am not sure. The MTV is cartoon, and the way that 郭美美 sings, is with a bit of a childish feel to it. The trailer on TV is showing the chorus, the part about being not afraid of cockcroaches.
Update: Mich just told me it's Romanian.

All these factors combined to give the song a childish feel, a fun song not to be taken seriously.

But I thought the lyrics is quite nicely written. It's actually about a lady who was hurt, presumably in love, trying to pick herself up. All the light heartedness about the song is to mask the hurt she feels. Something that people would not know about unless they took a deeper look.

Or maybe it's me thinking too much...

Every Tuesday, I'll wake up at 6:52am to book badminton courts for the following Tuesday. SSC hass a stupid system for badminton where booking for the week starting from Wednesday to the following Tuesday opens on Tuesday 7am. So everybody who is trying to book the peak hours for the whole week will try to log in at Tuesday 7am to attempt to book. This result in the server becoming very slow from 6:58am to 7:03am.

Anyway, this week, like any other week, I woke up early, and attempt to book. I managed to get 3 courts. Our arrangements is that I'll book the courts, and Calvin will go pay for it. He has to do it before 12noon or the courts will be released.

He forgot.

This is the 3rd time he forgot. Waste all my efforts waking up so early. I have to open 4 browser windows and try in all 4 as sometimes the server can't handle the load and give me error. All the efforts, and he forgot...

Luckily nobody took the courts and he managed to book back 2 of them.

After The Big Walk, Sharon, Thierry And went to Samwin's place for another game of mahjong. We played 2 rounds using the 3-6 half rate. The first game I was losing $40+. Given the losing streak I've been having since the New Year, I am not suprised.

During the 2nd round, I was losing money too. Midway through the 2nd round, we had a short break. The 3 of them went toilet, and I put on my lucky shirt. I bought it just before I came. From then on, I keep on winning.

By the time we end the session, I won $25. This is the first time I win Mahjong this year (Chinese lunar calucation). I've won some money in black jack earlier at Big Bird's place. I've also won abit of money last week when we play half a round of mahjong. But I don't take that into account as it's played too short. But it sure is a good start. Hopefully today is the turning point for my lousy bad luck this year.

It's the annual Big Walk organized by The New Paper today. I signed up for it, together with Sharon, FL, PS, Eric, Es-Am, Irene, Colin, Harry, EL-Dub-Ewe, Bee See, Wai-Es, Bee-Ax and Thierry. It starts at 7:30am, we are supposed to meet at Kallang MRT station at 7:15am, and I am supposed to meet Sharon at 6:40am at Bouna Vista Station. Very early to wake up for a weekend. :P



Of course, we did not get to meet at 7:15am due to certain people being late. This time, it's not me. And we are late for the kick off. It's a distance to walk from Kallang MRT to the stadium...

As we were walking to the stadium, we passed by the route of the Big Walk and decided to just join in from there, instead of the starting point. It's not a competition anyway. We thought the distance we missed should be about 1km, about the distance we walked from Kallang MRT. But after a short while, we find ourselves at the 3km mark...

[IMAGE: Walking]

Can you see the number 1 building?

[IMAGE: Clown]

As we were nearing Suntec, we saw this clown across the road.

[IMAGE: At the traffic light]

As we walk to the cross road junction at Suntec City, we realize that we have to stop to wait for the vehicles going in an adjacent directions. There are Cisco officers directing the traffic. When it's our turn to cross, we were the last few to cross. After Walking for awhile, I look back to see a huge crowd crossing the road.



There are a lot of official photographers along the route. Just as we were nearing the turning point, I see 1 of them trying to take a picture of the Merlion from the road. I thought it's weird as from his angle, it looks to be blocked. And as I look at the photographer, I realize that I know him. Haha! In fact, the whole bunch of us knows him. We get him to take a group picture of us. :)

[IMAGE: Falun Gong]

On our way back to the National Stadium, we saw a big bunch of Falun Gong members participating in the walk as well. In the middle of their procession is a bunch of ladies dressed in costumes beating drums in synchronize.

We managed to complete the walk with no casualties, collect our kit bags, and off we go to Yan Court in Hong Lim Area for our lunch. We split into 3 groups as 3 of us drove. I went with Wai-Es, which is not a very clever choice. His car is parked the furthest. :P

[IMAGE: McDonald's]

We walked by this McDonald's behind Kallang MRT station. They must have experienced a big crowd for every big walk. They rented quite a number of extra tables and chairs for this morning.

We had a sumptious lunch at Yan Court. The food is yummy, but there goes our efforts in the morning. :P

We went to Empress Cinema at Clementi to watch The Da Vinci Code. I thought it's quite a nice story. I did not quite grasp some of the parts, so I would recommend that you read the book before watching the movie. Some people will say reading the book before watching the movie will spoil the movie as you know what gonna happen. I thought that if you know the story before going to watch will enable you to spend more efforts on appreciating the movie than trying to figure out all the details.

Empress is a old style cinema. They are still using paper charts for you to chose your seats. They are using hand written tickets. And best of all, they cost only $6 per ticket. The bad thing is that the air-con may not be strong enough for some people. I thought it's ok. The seats are also quite old, so it may not be very comfortable. Some of the cusions may even be torn. Thierry has some pictures of the tickets and the seat chosing charts. You can read his account here.

I shldn't review the movie this time, I don't know enough about this movie to write a proper review, but I think it's nice.

After Megan's 1 month celebration, we have a couple of hours to kill before heading to Clementi to watch The Da Vinci Code at 6:30pm. So we went to my place to play a short round of mahjong. We only play 2 winds and I lost. As Usual.

Photo courtesy of Thierry.

Gee See is celebrating the arrival of her precious girl's 1st month stay on the planet Earth. May there be thousands more happy months to follow.

Read Thierry's account

The cough has been bad with no sign of recovering. So I went to see the doctor this morning and get myself some medicine and a 1 day MC. I think this is the first MC from work that I have taken since I started work many many years ago.

Luckily I did not wake up with a very bad pain at the ankle. But it's still there.

很爱很爱你

Thought of this flash clip suddenly. I thought it has quite a nice story, so I went searching for it. Took me sometime, but here you are...

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Everybody is a only half circle. There's another 1/2 circle out there that matches you to form a perfect circle. The trick is in finding her and then making her yours...

Update: People are telling me that the words moved too fast for them to read. So here you go:
Text version

I twisted my ankle last Tuesday while playing badminton. That did not stop me from going skating at East Coast Park on Friday and Sunday. This is because I thought the ankle protection of the skating shoes is so good that it's safer to skate than to walk.

Playing badminton is a different story. There's no ankle protection in the badminton shoes, and I don't want to miss today's session. So I got Thierry to help me buy an ankle guard. There's a sports shop near his office.

Unfortunately, he did not bring. So I played on without the guard. It was alright at first, but at the 3rd game, there's some reaction. I thought it's minor and I played another game. By my 5th game, my movement is starting to be restricted by the feeling in my leg, so I tried to move less. Finally, at the 6th game, my ankle gave way and I fell to the floor. I limped out of the court having been thrashed 14-0. The last point is abandoned.

However, me being me, can't sit still for long. After a bit of rest, I went on to play my 7th game. This game I chose my partner well. I did not move that much, but Samwin is able to cover enough of the courts that we managed to win by a comfortable margin. That was the last game of the night.

I guess I'll have to miss the soccer session on Thursday again. But this week is really a bad week. I have a sore ankle, a bad cough, a raspy voice, a sore throat and a slight headache. Grr.

I hope I don't wake up with a terrible pain at my ankle like last week...

Last year, during the last game of the season, a Champion's League Cup Final, Liverpool was trailing 3-0 to AC Milan at half time. AC Milan's defense is superb, no 1 can score 3 goals against them, or so we thought.

Luckily for Liverpool, they really managed to 3 goals in the 2nd half, and get the game into extra time, followed by penalty shoot outs.

We won.



This year, the last game of the season for us is the FA cup final, against West Ham, a weaker team on paper. But what's written on paper may not always be accurate during cup finals. If we can beat AC Milan, West Ham can beat us.

This time, we went 2 goals down in the 1st half. The first goal is a stupid mistake. Jamie Carragher accidentally put the ball into his own net. The 2nd goal was supposed is due to Reina not being able to hold on to a tame shot and the ball dropped in front of a West Ham player and he managed to knock it in. It looks like the cup is already West Ham's. But I thought it's possible to score 3 goals against West Ham. If we can pull 1 back before the break, we stand a good chance. And sure enough we did. Peter crouch have his goal disallowed for offside. Looking at the replays, you can that he bends his body forward while looking for the pass. I think he would be onside if he just stands straight. It was a well taken goal. A through pass and a good volley. Too bad it's offside. Thankfully, few minutes later, a similar situation occurs again, and this time, Cisse is not offside. And the score became 2-1 at the 32nd minute.



After the break, there is a sense of apprehension. We are looking for an equalizer. And we got it on the 54th minute. It's a tremendous shot by Captain Steven Gerrard. We are now back in the game. Unfortunately, 10 minutes later, a seemingly cross by Konchesky is actually goal bound. Keeper Reina misjudged it and West Ham is in front again.

West Ham is now defending in numbers. It's getting harder to score against them. And with their pace, their counter attacks are very dangerous. We managed to prevent them from scoring, and in the dieing minutes, in injury time, captain Gerrard again came to the rescue with another superbly taken shot. Extra time.

In extra time, everybody was very tired. Most of them, both Liverpool and West Ham were tired. Their counter attacks were not as dangerous as before, but so are we. 6 of our players got cramp, including Jamie Carragher, Steven Gerrard and Momo Sissoko. These 3 are the fittest players in the team. West Ham also has players with cramps. Harewood is the worst hit. He was at the sidelines for a long time. Lucky for his team, the conditions of the Liverpool team is not too good and they are not looking attacking fiercely to make his absence count. West Ham almost scores a winner later in the 2nd half of extra time. The hit the post with fierce shot and the rebound fell to Hyypia, who did not managed to clear it properly, and it fell to Harewood who shoots it wide. Thank god for cramps. And it's the penalty shoot outs.



West Ham has recently been promoted. Their players are not internationals. They had not played in European games. They were short on big match experience, and in pressure cooker environment like a FA Cup final penalty shoot out, it's gong to be very difficult for them. Add to the fact that our keeper Reina is known for saving penalties in Spain before he joined us, you know that we had the advantage. Sure enough, He made 3 saves out of 4 attempts by the West Ham players, and we are now the FA Cup champion!!

Stong, Thierry and Sharon came my place for mahjong again. This time we played 2 rounds. We played the rate of 30/60 divide by 2. I lost the first round $14. Won the 2nd round $1. Overall lose $13.

Recently been entrusted with a secret by a good friend. It's 1 thing abt not telling it to other people. That I can still do. Things gets messy when people asked me about it, and I have to lie and say I don't know. Sometimes I even have to lie and say the opposite. Don't like the lieing part, but I guess that's part and parcel of keeping secrets.

Finally I won at mahjong today. Partly because we played only 2 winds...

Grrr.

This morning, when I wake up, I realise I can't walk properly because my left ankle is giving me a lot of pain. It doesn't feel so bad last night. I can even have another game of badminton after I twisted it, and I have no problem whiile going home.

Since I was in pain, I decided to take cab to office to save me some walking, but there are no available taxis in sight, and there's at least 3 person in 'queue'. So I walked.

I sure hope it becomes better later. Hopefully by lunch time.

Twisted my ankle while playing badminton just now. Recently like quite injury prone. Really bad luck for me this year. Like almost nothing has gone right...

This morning, as I was walking to the bus stop from my house, I was treated to a nice back view of a thin, long haired lady. It's a good way to start the day.

As I was walking behind her (we happened to be on the same path for awhile, I am not stalking), I begin to wonder what she looked like. From past experience, most of the time when you see a nice back view of a lady, and she turned around, you would prefer she do not.

A similar thing happened on Sunday. We were in Colin's car and we passed by a lady that looks quite nice from behind. I told them that lady looks quite nice from behind, but she better not turned around. She did, and I was right.

This morning, that lady did not turn around. After a short distance, she began to walk another direction and we were separated without me getting a look of what she looked like, so she remains pretty in my mind.

Every time I see a nice back view of a lady, I want to know what she looks like, despite the fact that most of the time, I would be left disappointed. How about you? Would you prefer to just look at and appreciate the back view than run the risk of being disappointed when you finally get to see her face?

To speak in a broader sense, how many times have we been afraid to make changes because the current climate is good enough? There's a saying that goes, "If it ain't broken, don't fix it". Is that correct?

Last night, a friend was telling me about how he's efforts are not being appreciated by the management. He wanted to leave, but that company had given him quite good terms to work there. He was concerned about not being able to find a company with as good, if not better, benefits.

If we are in a good position now, do we seek to improve or do we strive to be better every time?

Another milestone reached.

I've written numerous entries about my various skating events. It's starting to get boring. Anyway, I went for anther skating outing again yesterday.

The notable things from this trip are,
i) This is the fastest I've ever go. I actually pushed myself even when I am on a down slope. I am still not very good, but compared to few weeks ago, I've improved a lot.

ii) From far, Thierry and I noticed that the closed Boardgame Paradice looks opened. So we walk over and realize that though they are open, it's actually a furniture shop. They used back the Boardgame Paradice signboard...

iii) Colin has been kind to drive me part of the way home.

Liverpool won Portsmouth 3-1. But that's not enough for them to clinch 3rd place. So it's Champion's league qualifier next year. At least we are seeded, so we get to avoid the big guns first. It's good to see Robbie Fowler hit the net again. But Dudek let in a goal. I worry for him. His career isn't going very well now.

On the other hand, Arsenal is much luckier. They were in a similar position to us, but they are fighting for the 4th place, the last Champion's League slot. Like us, they were behind Spurs by 1 point, but they have a superior goal difference. Anyway, Spurs lost, and they won, so they have the final Champion's League slot. Lucky for them. If they did not get 4th placing, and they lost the Champion's League final, and Thierry Henry left them, I can't imagine what they'll be like next season. So now, at least 1 thing went right for them.

Singapore has recently concluded it's elections with the PAP winning. A lot of people were saying that PAP has done a good job and that it's good that they continue to do it for us. The opposition is also too weak.

Not only do we allow them to run the country, we give them a very free rein to do pretty much what they think is good for us, even if the rest of us disagrees. So the PAP functions like a parent to us. We obey what our parents wants us to do, because they know better and what they do, is always for our own good. If we give our parents troubles, we are giving ourselves troubles. But there is 1 big difference between PAP and most parents. Parents are not motivated by money. Parents are not paid for their efforts. They even have to pay their own money. Granted that most parents get to enjoy the fruits of their efforts/'investments' if their son makes it good and is filial, but the efforts they put in can never be measured in terms of money. Anyway, I digressed. I am not talking about parents here.

Power corrupts. For long periods, PAP has been given a lot of powers. And a lot of money. I am not saying they are corrupted, though there are a number of articles out there that suggests so. But surely, we all run the risks of corrupting the PAP in the future. We had been giving them so much power and money for so long that 1 day, they may just crave for more and their actions may become to further their gains rather than to further Singapore as a nation. What I've said is just a conjecture, but I think we need to guard ourselves against this possibility.

I think we need a check and balance in the government, and that is the presence of good opposition party candidates in the parliament. The job of the opposition in the parliament is to give a voice to the Singaporeans on the streets, and to give alternative views. Even though the PAP is perfectly aboveboard, surely there can exist blind spots which they cannot see. Hopefully, the opposition can also help them see more of the blind spots.

But our oppositions are weak and inexperienced. Regarding the inexperience issues, how can they have the experience if we do not vote them into office? The PAP can use GRC to let their inexperienced candidates into parliament under the umbrella of senior ministers. The inexperienced opposition candidates only have us.

Regarding them being too weak, yes we need good oppositions, not just any opposition. But in order to have good opposition politicians, we need to have opposition politicians first. Meaning, the climate to be an opposition politician has to be right, will the good people willing to be one. Right now, too many opposition party members are being sued and exiled, and too little are receiving enough votes. To run for election, they have to pay a certain amount of money as deposits. And if they do not meet a certain percentage of votes, they lose their deposits.

Although some of those who are sued/exiled may not deserve much sympathy, all these spell a very bad climate for being an opposition politician. We need to give more votes to the opposition so that in the future more good people are willing to be one.

Recently, our Prime Minister says something like this during the election campaign. He says the opposition's job is not to make his job easier, but to make his job difficult. Currently, there are 3 oppositions in the parliament, and he can handle them. If there are more, say 10 to 20, he will have to spend all his time and efforts thinking about how to fix them rather than on how to improve Singapore. There is quite a cry about what he means by fixing the oppositions. I think the issue is not about fixing the oppositions here. I agree the opposition's job is not to make his job easier. It's to make him do his job better. I am a programmer. I can't imagine myself telling my boss to sack the test engineer because I can't concentrate on doing a good job because I have to spend all my efforts on handling the test engineer.

The PAP has done a very good job for us in the past. But we have to judge them on how good they are 20 years ago. We have to judge them on their performance for the past 5 years. By saying this, I am not accusing them of not doing a bad job. I have not done enough research and analysis to give a good assessment. But in my myopic and gut feel, the past few years has not been too good to the average Singaporeans.

We owe PAP what we have now. They deserve any respect we can give them. But in elections, it concerns our futures and our sons and daughters futures. Sentiments have to be put aside and do what is right for Singapore.

This is a bit late, but Robbie Fowler has been rewarded with a 1 year contract extention. The wait is finally over. Next year, we shall hold our breathe again...

Pain, originally uploaded by StupidGenius.

Went for another soccer session tonite. Had a good game, with 1 blight. I had my shin striked 4 times. I've had not worn my shin guard for very long. This is because i find it a hassle and me and my frens don't play so rough anyway. Judgeing by last nite's session, i better start wearing then again.

No, I am not talking about soccer.



Jerry and co are organizing a Kelong trip and I have told them that I would go. Basically, I know nothing about this trip before today. I only know I am going with them to Kelong. I don't know who are going or how many are going. I can't even remember how much it will cost me or what time is it going to meet. Only at the last minute did I read the email for the details. :P

We met at 6:45am at the car park of Newton Food Center on last Saturday. There are 32 of us, but 1 drop out at the last minute. I was out singing with the gang until late on previous night. I did not even pack until early morning on Saturday. It's only a 2 day 1 night trip, so there's not much harm even if I forgot anything.

We took the coach to woodlands causeway, picking up some guys at Kranji MRT along the way. The first stop is this Ah Koon fish ball shop. I thought the noodles there is average only, though it's supposed to be some famous shop or so I heard. At first we wanted to have Bak Kut Teh which is a few shops down, but it's so quiet there that we thought it is wiser to go to the more crowded shop.

[IMAGE: Road sign]

After breakfast, it's to the jetty. Along the way, I saw a number of such road signs. Can someone tell me what it is for? No honking?

[IMAGE: Jetty]

It's a few hours bus ride from the causeway to the jetty. After that it's a short wait before we can board the jetty.

[IMAGE: Sign at jetty]

I saw this sign at the edge of the jetty just before we board the ferry. Mich say it means please wear your life jacket or something like that.

[IMAGE: Leaving the jetty]

This picture is of the scenery next to the jetty. I took this picture just as we were leaving the jetty.

[IMAGE: Ferry ride]

The ferry ride takes slightly less than an hour.

[IMAGE: Arriving at Amy Kelong]

The kelong is quite high, and the ship quite small, so we have to climb up a ladder.

[IMAGE: In the kelong]

The kelong is pretty well equipped. Other than the lousy sleeping conditions you see here, they have numerous mahjong table and sets. A few carom tables, 1 pool table, a few TV, and even KTV. There are going to be 120+ pp in the kelong tonight.

[IMAGE: View]

All around us we see only the sea.

[IMAGE: Toilet]

You can see the sea even when looking at the toilet bowl.

[IMAGE: Sign]

No, we don't throw things into the sea. Not unless it's something edible like water melon skins...

[IMAGE: Another kelong]

I heard there's 4 kelongs in the Sibu area. I see only 1 other kelong nearby. The others could be on another side of the island. This 1 looks like better than the 1 we are staying in from far. :P

[IMAGE: Lunch]

Soon after we arrives, it's lunch time. It's a big fish there, but the fish is not caught in the kelong. They bought it from somewhere else.

After lunch, we had a game of mahjong. As usual, I lost.

[IMAGE: Island view]

We have a scheduled trip to the island at 4pm. We managed to finish our mahjong game right before that.

[IMAGE: Below the kelong]

As we were in the boat, preparing to go to the island, I realized there's a lot of stilts holding the kelong. A lot of them are broken too. I did not see the water melon skin I threw...

[IMAGE: Island view 2]

Looks nice this island we are going to...

[IMAGE: Twin Beach Resort]

So this place is called Twin Beach Resort.

[IMAGE: Never ending jetty]

There's 1 big problem with this resort. The jetty is very very very long. This picture barely covers half the length of it.

[IMAGE: Resorts]

The resorts of Twin Beach Resorts looks quite nice.

[IMAGE: Beach]

It's a nice beach. We played a few games of beach soccer and volleyball. While playing, we realized that we left 1 guy at the kelong. It turned out that he was sleeping in the other room, so we missed him when we left for the island. Poor chap.

[IMAGE: Jetty]

This picture is taken as we left the island. Looks long right?

[IMAGE: All guys]

The ferry is late, so all the guys took a picture while waiting.

[IMAGE: All girls]

The girls took 1 too.

[IMAGE: Dinner]

Another big fish dinner. This fish is not nice. I think it came together with the lunch fish.

After dinner, we had another game of mahjong. We played only 3 winds before the supper barbeque starts. I won money this time, but not enough to cover afternoon loses. I also missed the first half of the Liverpool game. And throughout the game, we were tortured by this guy in the KTV room. We could all hear him sing, and it's not nice.

The barbecue food is quite nice. The guys brought quite a lot of alcohol and we drank ourselves silly. We even invited the kelong staff to join us. We found out that this kelong is owned and run by Singaporeans.

In the morning, it's mahjong again. Again, we played only 3 winds. Again, I lost.

Lunch consists of another big fish. This time, it's quite tasty. And they had duck as well. But there's no water melon. They finished all the water melon the previous night.

[IMAGE: Ferry home]

After lunch, it's time to board the ferry to go home. It's a big ferry, and we can step onto the ferry straight from the kelong and not have to climb.

[IMAGE: Goodbye]

This is 1 of the staff who played games and drank alcohol with us last night.

[IMAGE: Coach]

We switch to a coach at the jetty, and it's really home. I thought it's quite a fun and nice trip. Maybe I'll go back again.

After I got back to Singapore, I met up with Sharon and Thierry to watch Daisy.

I was at Mr Bean at Princep Street last monday. Not the Tau Huay Mr Bean, this is a cafe. I was using their toilet, andthis sign is starring right at me while I am sitting at the toilet. It's so near that I do not need to stretch to have my palm touching it.

Someone once told me that penguins have no fixed bedtime. They just keep doing their things until they are too tired, where they take a quick nap. When they are awake, they continue on the stuff they are doing before they went to sleep.

I have been leading this kind of lifestyle for quite some time. I work very long hours, so my sleeping hours at night is actually quite short. But I made up for it my taking penguin naps during working hours.

My current job do not require me to work long hours. I almost always can leave by 7pm. But I am still used to my penguin lifestyle.

Productivity today is quite bad. There's a few times when I feel sleepy and can't think properly. Normally, I would nap for 5 minutes and wake up fresh and able to continue work at a much faster speed. But no, I can't nap now. My manager doesn’t like it. So I have to struggle to keep awake and have my groggy mind try to do the stuff at 1/10 the speed. Grr.

I know, I can solve all these problems by sleeping early at night so that I won't be sleepy in the day. But I've being a penguin for so long. It takes time to adjust back. And before I do, I can solve the sleepiness problem in 5 minutes but I can't use that method, so I use the rest of the day method. Grr.

I watched Daisy on Mayday eve. It's a Korean movie directed by the Hong Kong directed, Andrew Law, who directed Infernal Affairs. The scriptwriter is another Hong Konger, Felix Chong. It's shot in Amsterdam. Overall, I enjoyed the movie, except that I do not understand what the director trying to say with the last scene.

Click here for my report on Daisy. It contains spoiler.

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The lead male character, Park Yi is an assassin. One day he saw a pretty artist at a daisy field. He felt attracted to her. Then he saw her attempt to cross a log bridge and falls into the river. He started running to her, but before he reaches her, she has scrambled out of the river onto her bicycle and left. He saw her painting equipment floating on the river and retrieves it.

After this incident, the lady, Hye Young, starred by the lovely Jung Ji Hyun, decides to take a detour then to cross that log bridge. 1 day, she happens to walk back to the place where she fell into the river and instead of the log bridge, she sees a proper bridge, and her painting equipment is placed in the center of the bridge. She felt as if someone built that bridge for her, which, of course, is true. The bridge is built by Park Yi. After she finishes painting the daisy field, she left it on the bridge for her secret admirer.

After that, she receives a pot of daisy at her doorstep everyday. They were given by Park Yi. He is concerned about putting her in trouble if he gets too close to her, so he always observes her from afar.

Everyday, Hye Young sets up a stall to help people draw their portraits. One day, Jeong Woo, an Interpol officer, sat down at her stall with a pot of daisy, and asked her to draw his portrait. He was trailing some drug syndicate and the pot of daisy he picked up while he was following some suspects as cover. He sits at Hye Young's stall because it gives him a good view of the place he's monitoring and yet be covered by Hye-Young. It causes Hye-Young to suspect that he may be her secret admirer. He visited her a few more times and their relationship grew.

One day, he shows up at her house. This makes her surer that he's the daisy man, as she has never told him her address. She told him about her experience with the log bridge and the daisies and asked if he's him. He did not answer and just hugged her. Seems like a good deal. In 1 move, he claims credits to all Park Yi's efforts. :P

One day, while Jeong Woo was talking to Hye Young at her store, several thugs approached them with guns. As Park Yi was observing her with his rifle's telescopic lens, he saw the thugs as well, and he shoots at them before they reach her. There were several more thugs and a gunfight ensues. Hye Young was injured in the process. Jeong Woo saw Park Yi shooting in the building and thought he's part of the thugs and tried to pursue him, but he was shot in the leg by Park Yi. I think Park Yi have no intention of harming him Jeong Woo as he only shot him only in the thigh.

After this, Jeong Woo is recalled back to Korea. They think he bungled the mission and do not let him go back to Amsterdam. Hye Young was hospitalized and lost her voice as well. She was heart broken to hear that Jeong Woo is gone.

When Park Yi saw her so sad, he decides to show up and tried to cheer her up. He did not reveal that he's the daisy man though. He managed to make Hye Young cheer up though she still misses Jeong Woo.

Jeong Woo's superior in Amsterdam managed to get him assigned back into the team. He met up with Hye Young to apologize for putting her in danger and causing her to be injured in the process. He saw Park Yi there as well and thought that they are now a couple.

His superior found out that it's an assassin who shot and injured Jeong Woo in that gunfight. He decides to hire that same assassin, which of course is Park Yi, in order to lure him out. He has already found out the way to contact the assassin. The question is hire the assassin to kill who? Jeong Woo volunteered to be the target. And thus, Park Yi is tasked to kill Jeong Woo.

Knowing that he has no future with Hye-Young and that she thought Jeong Woo is him, he decides let Jeong Woo be back with Hye Young. While Jeong Woo and the other Interpol are laying a trap for Park Yi, he approaches Jeong Woo. Jeong Woo recognizes him as Hye Young's new beau, and he tells his superior that he saw a friend and he'll have to leave for awhile to talk to him. Park Yi tells Jeong Woo that Hye Young still loves him and that he can continue to let her believe that he sends the daisy and built the bridge. As for Park Yi, Jeong Woo can either arrest him, or he'll run away and hide. Unfortunately, the organization that sends Park Yi to kill Jeong Woo sent a back up. The back up killed Jeong Woo when he sees that Park Yi is not going to do it. The Interpol are now looking for the friend that Jeong Woo went away with. They believe that he's the one who killed Jeong Woo.

Some time passed. Hye Young managed to get over her grief somewhat. Park Yi is still taking care of her. He even picks up lip reading so that Hye Young can talk to him. One day, Hye Young was taking to Jeong Woo's superior when he told her that when Jeong Woo died, classical music is playing in his car stereo and that Jeong Wo never listens to classical. He also told her that black tulips are being used to hire assassins. Hye Young remembers seeing black tulips at Park Yi's place and Park Yi loves classical music. She went to Park Yi's place and went break into the storeroom that Park Yi kept locked all the time. She found a picture of Jeong Woo and a picture of his superior.

She thought Park Yi killed Jeong Woo and is very angry at him. Park Yi is preparing to kill his new target, Jeong Woo's superior, and he sedated Hye Young when she confronts him. He left her the daisy field picture she left on the bridge for her and a note that tells her the whole story.

When Hye Young wakes up and read the story, she realizes that the guy she was waiting for all this while is actually Park Yi. She rushes to where Jeong Woo's superior is and stands in front of him holding the daisy field picture above her, mouthing a message to Park Yi. She beseeches him to stop killing. And now that she realizes that he is the man she is looking for all these while, they can now be together finally.

Park Yi is touched and decided to forgo this mission. He went to Hye Young. As they were talking, another assassin sent by the organization took a shot at him. Hye Young saw it and jumps in front of Park Yi and took the bullet herself. She died.

I thought this is a pretty good story. The shots are quite nicely done as well. And of course, Ji Hyun, is gorgeous. There are a lot of things that Park Yi does for Hye Young that is so sweet. He built a bridge for her when he saw her fell. He sends her daisy's everyday. He picks up lip reading when she lost her voice. He even offers Jeong Woo to take his credits. Too bad he's an assassin.

After Hye Young died, he's overcome with grief. He went on a rampage and kills everyone in his organization, including his boss.

The last scene shows the 3 of them, Park Yi, Hye Young and Jeong Woo hiding from the rain in some shelter. They seem not to know each other. When the rain stops, the 3 of them left separately. I thought this is a weird ending. I got no idea at all what the director is trying to say, or if he has anything to say at all. Those who have any idea, please tell me. Thanx.

I was helping out in a project recently. I gave some suggestions and the person in charge accepted it and it worked fine. But why did I not feel the sense of achievement?