Hey…
Had an interesting week last week, with meetings and other stuff. On Friday night I went out for drinks with some colleagues, which was nice. Nice talk, good music, fun movie chat, music, bands, all sorts of good things. A bit of a hangover the next morning, but no big deal really…
Saturday was fun. Zen and I went downtown along the path I always take to work, which is a bus and a train, and got out at my usual work metro station. Walked over to the rail station for the Malaysia train system to check out trains. I called up my boss, who came out to spend some time with us. He explained various things about the trains, and we got some food and talked about stuff. Nice, chilled out morning, and Zen got to see two trains arrive and one train pull out, as well as some shunting action. Took a cab back and napped. I spent the afternoon chilling out, napping, doing errands, whatever. Sunday I mostly spend preparing for my business trip, some nervousness because I don’t know how it will go.
Monday I got up at 4:00 AM, took a taxi at 4:30, got to the budget terminal at 5:00 and checked in. Had some breakfast. I was probably the only business traveler in the whole place, as it was mainly young Singaporean travellers, and the odd hairy Westerner. Flew off to Bangkok, napped on the way, got to the airport early and headed over to the cabs, jumped in. It was 8:00. Got going to my first interview, traffic was slow because it had been raining. Got there at 9:35, five minutes late. But the guy I was interviewing was late too! The rest of the day was a blur – one interview, jump in a cab to the next interview, arrive late, jump in the cab for the next interview, arrive early, jump into the cab for the fourth interview, arrive early. They were all interesting in one way or anther, and I saw a bunch of interesting bank headquarters. One was a gleaming complex, two were gleaming towers, and one was a refurbished classic building. Very nice. One of the spots was near where the Chao Phrya river makes a severe bend like an “S”, creating a sort of peninsula. From the upper floors, I could see the peninsula clearly, it was mainly jungle with a few small structures. Weird to have something like that so close to the city. The bank HQ itself was interesting, flanked on one side by a skeleton of a highrise abandoned in mid-construction in the crash of 1997, and on the other side posh new condo developments. Funny how times change. After the last interview I got a lift to the airport in a nice car, very cozy. Relaxed with some beers and caught the scenery. No traffic, the car zipped along, and I was at the airport at 5:30 for my 8:20 flight. A breeze… Unfortunately, the airline counter hadn’t opened yet, and the long queue was a disaster. 7:10 I got my boarding passes, and had listened through the Isis and Iron Maiden songs that I had packed into my iPod. Torture. Went to the boarding area, had dinner, bought beers, flew back to Singapore, got there a little after schedule – 11:50 instead of 11:30. Got through customs lickety split nonetheless, jumped in a cab, got back at 12:30, turned on the computer and did stuff until 2:30.
Today we got up early and went to the local mall to watch Spiderman 3, it opened in Singapore today. Got there before the gates opened, were among the first to get tickets, watched at 10:15. The movie’s not bad, but not as good as the first two for various reasons. Ate lunch at Burger King, got the Burger King Spiderman 3 toy, then came back home and did errands, fiddled around on the computer, hung out.
CD Review: Iron Maiden “A Matter of Life and Death” – I lost track of Iron Maiden some time in the late ’90s with the “Somewhere In Time Album,” but when I read the reviews that the recent album is a return to the classic sound of the “Piece of Mind” album I was entrigued, not to mention the fact that this release comes with a bonus DVD (I’m a sucker for bonus video). Listening to the heavy riffs, the melodic acoustic riffs, the weird squeaky effects of two guitars playing simultaneously but one a half note off from the other (I think this is what they do) is comfortable and familiar and good fun in fact. Not that this album has a song as good as “Flight of Icarus,” nor any cool literary tracks that crack the world of Frank Herbert, Alan Silitoe, or even H.P. Lovecraft, no songs about the Prisoner, no continuation of the Charlotte the Harlot saga, but lots of good clean riffs that remind us that in some worlds it’s still 1984. After this, I got checking out some old Iron Maiden stuff, and found out about a female cover band cialis soft tabs vs cialis, who cover the songs. Seems like more good, goofy fun. I’ve also been looking into the legend of Eddie the Head stuff through the Wikipedia, as well as the website of tadalafil lilly 20mg, the guy who created the character and did a bunch of album art for the band. I haven’t checked out the DVD much yet, although the accompanying video for the Reioncarnation of Benjamin Bregg is uninspiring, as is the accompanying photo gallery.
Movie Review: “Spider-man 3″ – We don’t get out to see movies much these days, but when it’s something that Zen can get into we all try to go. May 1st is a national holiday in Singapore, so it was a good thing to do. The film is okay, a bit long, lagging at times with drama. Some sillness, often in inappropriate places (one goofy stunt climaxes at a point of heartbreak for Peter). The movie introduces three villains, but the only one that is dealt with in a satisfactory way is Venom, who’s genuinely scary. For fans of the comic book, it is even more revisionistic than either of the other two, as is made clear by introducing Gwen Stacey. Unfortunately, the character, even in a new form, is not used to its potential, nor is Sandman – interesting points are introduced, but not developed. Another quibble – too much CG! I can’t get used to these computerised sets that look like video games. Like the subway system that Spiderman fights Sandman in looks like the mines of Saruman from the Fellowship of the Ring. Nutty – didn’t know that there was so much space to manoeuver down there.