Marina’s Bloggariffic

When Yuhui plurked about catching the Teenage Textbook movie, I was intrigued. The Teenage Textbook was a book that I enjoyed immensely through my school years. Although I have no watched the movie before, I think that it’ll be quite an experience to watch the book come to life!

In a nutshell, the teenage textbook movie revolved around 4 main characters, Mui Ee, a smart but shy girl, her best friend, Sissy Song, the popular school belle, Chung Kai, who secretly harbors a crush on Mui Ee, and his best friend, Hok Sean.

As my younger sister has read the book and has not watched the movie either, I thought that it would be a great time to bond together in a girls night out :)

We reached Old School at about 8pm and although I’ve been here before, I’m always charmed at how elegant the place was and impressed that it was converted from an actual school!

We chose our seats and sat down on the plush seats in the Sinema hall, and waited for the movie to start. I sat there lapping up each moment.

The movie was lovely - it was funny, it was witty, and I thought that the cast had good chemistry with each other.

The storyline was good albeit it was more of a condensed version of both the teenage textbook and teenage workbook. There were a number of scenes that were taken out, such as the lisping guy who keeps calling Sissy Song as “Thythy Thong” as well as the scene when Tom D’Cruise tried to make his moves on Mui Ee.

But that was a problem with many book to movie transition as different people always have different perceptions as to what was important to be kept in the movie and which would be cut away due to constraints.

And granted that the quality of the film was rather grainy, and that there were a number of references which was outdated, it was understandable as the movie was produced in 1998.

I had a blast recognizing the old “ship” currency, looking at popular spots like Orchard and Holland Village as they were 10 years ago as well as reminiscing about the days when Mark Richmond was deejaying for Perfect Ten.

When the movie ended, out comes Adrian Tan, the author, and Phillip Lim, the director to come to talk about the movie as well as a questions and answer session. I was so floored! I always feel a sense of privilege when meeting a creator.

And while the both of them were bantering, the audience could sense how at ease they were with each other.

I learnt that Adrian Tan was a lawyer, which was an interesting fact for me to note since going to the Kevin Matthew’s performance, and he was a lawyer too! Proving that lawyers are not necessarily fuddy duddy people :P

I also found out that Phillip Lim gave out directing lessons around the time when he was creating the Teenage Textbook Movie to supplement his income. Turns out that one of his students was Royston Tan, an emerging and acclaimed director in Singapore!

And in the end, I had a picture with the author, the director and two of the main casts in the show. Oh my. I cant believe that I was actually took a picture as well as had a short talk to Adrian Tan. He was a very eloquent and friendly person and I was so in awe and was very excited to the point of almost being delirious.

As if you could not see from my huge grin photographed next to Adrian Tan, Phillip Lim, Randall Tan and Melody Chen. Woah! I’m embarrassed to say that I was starstruck :P

All in all, I enjoyed myself tremendously and I think that it was an evening to remember :-)

Here’s a quick video about how the teenage textbook movie materialized :

How the Teenage Textbook Movie started from rinaz on Vimeo

And here is a clip from the Q&A session :

Q&A session from the Teenage Textbook Movie from rinaz on Vimeo

Have you read the teenage textbook? Did you enjoy reading it?

Related links :

• Catch the Teenage Textbook Movie in Sinema!
• Teenage Textbook Movie Review
• Watch the Teenage Textbook trailer

You may also be interested in :

• Leap Years

Sidenote : I don’t know what possessed my dad to get these. I think my future in-laws are going to disown me for sure.

Ever since attending the Revlon launch some while back, I’ve been quite fascinated by mineral makeup. Recently, through Sylvia, I stumbled upon an entry about free mineral samples and I’ve ordered the Everyday Minerals sample kit.

This consists of a concealer, blush and foundation. I’ve been using them for about a week now and I’m really happy with it so far.

Below are two videos of :

How to put on mineral makeup

How to put on mineral make up from rinaz on Vimeo

And what I think of Everyday Minerals Cosmetics

My review of Everyday Minerals from rinaz on Vimeo

Have you used mineral cosmetics before? What do you think of it?

You may also be interested in :

• Revlon Mineral Makeup Launch
• My very own Loreal lipstick commercial!
• How to be pretty

I had the most harrowing experience ever in Kuala Lumpur. And I hope that you did not go through what I did. So I’m posting this to let everyone know.

I love Kuala Lumpur but there are too many unscrupulous touts there which is ruining my experience.

Mum and I spent the weekend in Kuala Lumpur to get some items for the wedding, there was an area called Masjid India, where there were plentiful of Malay wedding paraphernelia to be found.

After buying our items, we headed to Puduraya, which is a very famous bus interchange in Kuala Lumpur.

When we went up to the ticketing counter, located on the second floor, there were about 20 touts hovering around us, hassling us to buy their tickets.

I asked them how much the tickets costed. First it was RM$35. Which I thought was really expensive as the standard price was RM $25.

But after using their walkie talkies, they then changed the price to RM $40.

There was this female tout who suddenly grabbed my arm and told me sarcastically not to be fussy and buy her $40 Ringgit ticket as everyone else was selling it at the price.

Surrounded in a chaotic situation, I got annoyed and shot back at her, “Its my money! I’ll spend it how I like!”

In the corner, I heard someone shout out $60 Ringgit as a ticket price. Thats outrageous!

There were a number of ticket counters - about 60 altogether. Mum and I walked over to one counter that we knew was legitimate - The Causeway Express. It was 2pm at the time.

But the 2.30pm coach was sold out and the next earliest coach was at 5.30pm.

Not wanting to wait for 3 hours, we had to relent and buy one from another counter where most of the touts were swarming. I found a ticket being sold at $35 for a bus leaving at 3.15.

At the specified time, mum and I went to the platform and a coach came in. According to the ticket, it had the bus number and I was supposed to enter it.

But there was a man at the entrance and after checking our ticket, he said that both mum and I were not allowed to enter. He told us that it was not our bus and that the next bus would be arriving.

I was surprised but we waited as there were other passengers who were in the same predicament as us. And so we waited.

Another bus went by and once again, someone checked our ticket and would not let us in, saying that our bus will be the next bus

The same thing happend for the next hour.

One hour! I was losing my temper and started to show my displeasure at one of the touts. They were rude and extremely unprofessional. They shouted at us, telling us to wait and never gave an apology or pacified us for being late.

All of a sudden, we were herded to another platform and told to wait for the coach there. I was highly suspicious. What are we doing here? Why are we following them? Didnt the ticket said that we were supposed to wait at this platform?

Eventually, there was a group of about 40 people which formed and we were lead outside of the depot and walked towards where a coach was.

Why is the bus here?

But at the time, I was grateful that we finally had a bus to sit on. It was already 6pm. We had waited for the bus for over 3 hours!

But just as I was getting comfortable on the bus, there were two guys with the walkie talkies, entered and check our tickets (again?!) and said, this ticket is 35 ringgit. Seats in this bus costs 40 ringgit. You need to give another 5 ringgit.

I was EXTREMELY upset.

You made us wait for 3 hours and we still have to pay YOU more money? You should be compensating us instead!

Instead, he spouted some sort of bullshit about oil prices being expensive and that the bus needs at least $1500 Ringgit for its journey and that the bus will not move if he does not meet the amount.

There was a person sitting in front of me who could not tolerate it and the both of them escalated in a shouting match. Eventually, the ticket-checker challenged the passenger to meet his boss and grabbed his arm and the both of them very nearly fought in the bus.

But in the end, being pressured to go home, unwillingly they topped up the amount.

Mum was being very brave. She calmly told the ticket-checkers to settle it among themselves as they both has checked our tickets repeatedly and has never mentioned anything about the ticket being $40 and that they were the ones who lead us here.

I heard the guy mention to the other guy, “Lets just forget about the ulat (illegal-profit) for these ones”

And thats when I realised that we have been conned. How can it be? We bought the tickets from a legitimate counter! All sorts of thoughts went through my mind.

After the long bus journey back to Larkin (a bus interchange in Johore Bahru) I noticed that we did not enter the bus interchange either. I was surprised. The passanger sitting next to me then explained that unlicensed drivers dont enter the bus interchange as they do not want to be caught.

So we’ve were in an unlicensed bus. We were cheated! We were sold fake tickets by a counter and handled by a tout!

I’ve travelled by busses a number of times before but this must have been the most incredibly worst ever experience that I’ve ever had while travelling in Malaysia. And I dont want to go through this again!

But its made us all the wiser. And I hope that you dont experience the same thing that we went through. So if you are travelling to KL, always book a legitimate bus service.

Some of them are :

• Causeway Link
• Transnational
• Mara Liner

Colleagues has also adviced me to take the coach from IMM or from Jurong Point and they allow two way travel.

Do NOT at any circumstances ever take the bus from Delima Express nor buy from the counter 93. The bus that we took has the plate number BGU 3615.

Even Malaysians are tired of the Puduraya Touts as seen in these blogposts here and here and here.

As for my part, I will be doing a police report against these touts. I’ll let you know how it goes. In the meanwhile, please forward this post to anyone who is travelling, especially to Puduraya by coach.

Last week, I was at the Singapore Garden Festival. After missing the first one in December 2006, I told myself that I should make an effort to view the one this year

When I reached Suntec City, there were already quite a number of people there - presumably after work, like me. I made my payments at the counter and after getting my ticket, I entered the exhibition hall.

And what I saw just floored me. There were heaps of beautiful sights in front of me. From photography of flowers, to the many landscape and fantasy gardens, from the different designers all over the world.

Here is one done by a China representative, with a very apt display for the Beijing Olympics. Not that much flowers are used in this display, making it looks more zen than garden-like.

Here is something kind of cool that we hardly see in real life because of our tropical climate. A lavender field! It seems to go on and on and I desperately wanted to sit in the middle and just enjoy the beauty of it all. Too bad it was behind a glass and that visitors aren’t allowed to enter inside.

The Singapore Garden Festival was so beautiful that even Marilyn Monroe stopped by

There were plentiful of displays there to be seen which are placed in the gallery. But there were two displays in particular that moved me. One of them was this one which depicted the beautiful rural charm of China.

Personally, I think that this picture does not do it justice but when I saw it, I just had to stop for a while and just stand there for a few minutes. It was so serene and breathtaking. Just listening to the water flowing in the pond and the koi swimming made me feel so relaxed.

And here is the other side of the display. With the little details such as the tea cups and the wheat grinder, it brings out the charm and the authenticity, momentarily bringing me to rural China. Its so beautiful!

And another display which I loved heaps was this one entitled Glendalough by the American designer. Its gorgeous and I felt my heart sigh when looking at the display. How can anyone not?

To say that this looks charming would make it unjustified. This is what faerie tales are made of, with the greenery, the little pond and the stone toadstool and especially the little stone chapel. I love it!

There is a story of how the designer of this display was inspired by how easily nature can take away man’s ambitions and beautifully make it part of her own work.

At the same time, it was said that the designer proposed to his then girlfriend in a place which looked like this in Glendalough, Ireland. Oh my! I’d like to be re-proposed like this too!

There is something about fresh flowers that makes me feel happy. My only issue about the event was that, whatever illusion I had being part of the display was quickly faded with the amount of people that visited there.

Its hard to imagine being in Ireland with other people snapping around and posing! My other issue is that we could not touch or interact with the displays. I really would have loved to bury my face in the flowers or feel it next to my skin at the very least.

Regardless, I enjoyed myself tremendously. It was an evening well spent :)

Here is a quick video of two of the displays that I liked a lot :

Garden Festival 2008 from rinaz on Vimeo

Have you been to the Garden Festival? Which one of the displays did you like the best?

Related Links :

• Singapore Garden Festival Official Website
• More pics in the gallery
• Garden Festival on Wikipedia

I was listening to the Talkback segment on 938live and the topic of the day was “Are Singaporeans disrespectful to the National Anthem?” and a few minutes later, I heard you call in this morning to air your views.

You said that the National Anthem was hard to understand and because it was in Malay, not everyone would appreciate it. You also suggested that the National Anthem should be changed to English.

But isn’t it such a drastic change to have the National Anthem, sung in the official language changed after 43 years? Would it really be the best solution to change it to English?

But true, that its possible that throughout the years after school, that its easy to forget.

So, here is my part in sharing with you the National Anthem as well as the translation. After all, we all do need reminders sometimes ;)

MAJULAH SINGAPURA

Mari kita rakyat Singapura
Sama-sama menuju bahagia
Cita-cita kita yang mulia
Berjaya Singapura

Marilah kita bersatu
Dengan semangat yang baru
Semua kita berseru
Majulah Singapura
Majulah Singapura

ONWARD SINGAPORE
(English Translation)

Come, fellow Singaporeans
Let us progress towards happiness together
May our noble aspiration bring
Singapore success

Come, let us unite
In a new spirit
Let our voices soar as one
Onward Singapore
Onward Singapore

There is even a Chinese and Indian translation in the National Heritage Website!

Thus I end this message wishing you and everyone a happy national day :)

With about 5 months to the wedding, this is a videoblog of what has been done so far

Wedding Preparations so far from rinaz on Vimeo

Related links :

• How we first met
• The engagement

On the 28th of July, a group of the omy finalists attend the gala premiere of Money No Enough 2 - a movie produced in Singapore.

Here is a video montage of the event as well as our thoughts of the movie.

Gala Premeire of Money No Enough 2 from rinaz on Vimeo

If you enjoyed this review, you might also enjoy :

• Leap Years (2008)
• I not stupid 2 (2006)