Mini FDS Dinner Gathering

Met up with Yipeng, Ronnie, Zhangjing and KMS for steamboat dinner at 鲜得来 at Bugis. It's been a long time since we met up for a meal. And since YP is in reservist right now, he decided to organize this dinner gathering. As usual we will talk about our good old army days as well as our latest happenings. It's also the start of my buffethon/splurging on food for the next few days...

20 Jul - Steamboat buffet dinner at 鲜得来
23 Jul - International buffet dinner at Todai
24 Jul - Buffet breakfast at Greenhouse, Ritz-Carlton
26 Jul - $49.90 Groupon promotion Japanese fine dining at Hokkaido Sushi Restaurant, M Hotel

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Gardens By The Bay Official Opening

The $1b project Gardens By The Bay is officially opened. And we went there on its last day of opening celebrations. Plenty of foreigners and locals gathered in this huge park which consists of many areas like the two iconic conservatories, Cloud Forest and Flower Dome (total of $20 entry fee, PAssion card holders 10% off) and OCBC Skywalk ($5 per visit). We will visit the conservatories soon but not on that day since it's soooo crowded. There were performances to kick-off this grand opening and we managed to catch one of the shows.

Our first view of the Supertrees as we entered the Gardens.

A closer view of the Supertrees.

The sun setting behind the pillars of the Flower Dome.

Restaurant Pollen at the Flower Dome.

Took a rest on a bench and decided to snap some pix.

The Gardens offered a splendid view of the Flyer with the evening sky.

Another trigger-happy moment.

As the sun sets, the Supertrees lit up to an even more mesmerizing beauty.

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It's Blogging Saturday!

Sorry folks for the emptiness in my blog. Been so busy/lazy to update my blog due to work, Diablo, Euro and more Diablo. Finally decided to update my spiderweb-covered blog. I updated several posts on Sasuke qualifiers and finals so just scroll down for them.

Here are some mini-updates:

6th July 2012, Friday

It was my company's subsidized movie screening event at Grand Cathay. Paid $4 for each movie ticket. Managed to grab 4 tickets so I passed Nut Nut to bring her friend along as well. This time it was The Amazing Spiderman. Quite a different style of the story of Spiderman in this movie. Full of action nonetheless which kept everyone excited throughout the movie. Can't really compare this to the 2002 version because different villains were used in these first parts of a trilogy. This 2012 version has the Lizard whereas the 2002 version had the Goblin, if I remember correctly. And the way Uncle Ben died was different too. Oops. If you haven't watch it, spoiler alert!

30th June 2012, Saturday

Went to JB with Momo dear and Nut Nut. Wonder why they love to go there so much. The only reason I'll go there is for seafood or movies. And I choose to watch Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, all by myself, for the very first time. I have never watched a movie by myself before -_-. Dear and Nut watched Brave. Diao...I'll choose an action horror movie over a cartoon anytime. AL:VH rocks! One of the best vampire movies for the longest time.

We had lunch at one of the sushi restaurants in the basement before the movie, then shopped around after the movie. I had my haircut at Thomas & Guys for RM48 by a senior hairstylist. Was thinking might as well pay a bit more to get someone more experienced. Then we had dinner at the Mongkok 茶餐厅 before going home.

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Spanish Era Has Arrived

First they won Euro 2008, then World Cup 2010, and now Euro 2012. They've done the impossible. And a whopping 4-0 victory over Italy, the largest margin by far, for the European Championships. Too bad the timing was so bad, 2:45am, for kick-off. And it's a working day on the next day. Therefore the best I could do was to check the scoreline the moment I woke up this morning. Too bad my favourite team Germany couldn't be in the finals, otherwise they would definitely be better opponents for Spain.

Not just soccer, even the government wants our students to be equipped with Spanish. Holy cow Spanish? How about Singpanish?

Now that the Euros are over, it's back to Premier League fever very soon. But not before the Olympics, held in London this year, lights up the sports stage. Then again, nothing much to look forward to.

The Gardens By The Bay has officially opened, therefore will be going there pretty soon to see what the $1b construction has to offer.

And of course, looking forward to the short trip with Dear very soon hehehe.

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Sasuke Singapore Stage 1

And so Chian San managed to squeeze into the 100 selected for the actual finals for Singapore's first ever Ninja Warrior, aka Sasuke! So happy for him. At least it gave me a chance to witness the real thing. I went down to support him and so did his ex-colleague, Alvin, who was there during the qualifiers as well. I'm pretty sure we'll be on TV if the producers decided to feature our few seconds captured by the camera as his supporters. We waited for an eternity at Palawan Beach, Sentosa, where the obstacle course was built. It was only after 1.5 hours before the first participant got onto stage. Supposed to start at 1pm but ended up at 2:30pm then they started zzz.

Joanne Peh was the host of these TV series. She had to endure the scorching sun to do the filming. It was really fricking hot. Hardly any clouds at all.

It's the REAL Ninja Warrior obstacle course right in Singapore's Sentosa island!

Obstacle 1: Sextuple Step

Obstacle 2: Jump Hang

Obstacle 3: Halfpipe Attack

Obstacle 4: Warped Wall, Obstacle 5: Tarzan Rope + Rope Ladder

Joanne Peh at the finishing point doing a short shoot in the glaring hot sun lol.

The whole obstacle course looks awesome!

Joanne Peh live in person.

CS doing his ninja pose!

Chian San sprained his ankle at the second obstacle when he was testing on the trampoline. And that spells the end of his attempt at Ninja Warrior glory. He managed to jump again on the trampoline and even touched the ropes but couldn't hold on to it. Even if he did manage to hang on, his ankle wouldn't allow him to finish the course. Haizzz...

Nevertheless it was a very good attempt. Most people fail at the trampoline cos they did not know how to utilize it properly. Let's go again for the next season! WOOHOO!

Catch CS and Me (maybe) on Channel 5 Sasuke Singapore!

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Sasuke Singapore Qualifiers 3rd June 2012

It's Sunday and finally my turn has come! FINALLY I can have a taste of what it's like to be on Ninja Warrior! Well...not exactly the real thing. But at least I tried hehehe. Always thought that the obstacles looked very interesting and wanted to try it for myself. Therefore the moment I got to know that Ninja Warrior was coming to Singapore, I did not hesitate signing up for it, even though I'm not much of an athlete lol.

And so my session was on Sunday 10:45am. Went to register myself and my number was L688. Huat ah! My session was actually the one just nice being used as for the Sasuke Singapore trailer that people can see on TV now wahahha. Here's the video.

 

My whole family went down, including Momo dear and Nut Nut, to support me lol. Well it's more like I want them to go join in the exciting atmosphere and have fun. When was the last time I participated in something so exciting? Never!

As I was called to sit down in my group to prepare for the start of the obstacle course, I started feeling nervous. Never had I participated in something with so much adrenaline rush. This would be shown on TV some more! But I think that's not the reason for me being nervous. The whole obstacle course doesn't look daunting even. It's probably cos it's a REAL competition. Damn it's so exciting. My hands were literally filled with electricity. Could feel that my hands can shoot electric bolts lol.

 Here you can see me and my group of Ninja Warrior hopefuls doing a shoot for the Ch5 trailer.

Ready for battle!

By the time it was my detail, and standing beside my box, I tried to shake off the electricity in my hands but it just wouldn't go away. No choice I had to just do it. As I ran through the course, the electricity in my hands started fading. The first station push-ups was not as good as I thought. Haven't been training much prior to these qualifiers, therefore I was very slow in doing push-ups. Then it was jumping onto the box for 20 times. I had practiced this in front of Momo dear on a normal bench in a void deck. Therefore this proved no problem for me as I used my own technique to clear it. Then it was running through a series of types. No problem there as well, unless you have coordination problem. Next it was 25 times lifting an 8kg medicine ball straight up my arms extended above our heads. WTH there was dried mud on the medicine ball and some bits and pieces fell onto my face while I was lifting it. I think that proved to be quite a distraction zzz. By the time I was finished with the medicine ball, three guys were already ahead and I ran with all my might and strode across the wooden plank without breaking a sweat. Two guys already walked off with two flags, which means the final flag was up for grabs my me and the guy in front. There was about 5-10 metres of distance between me and that guy but I sped like a speeding bullet and overtook that guy at the last second and managed to grab the flag right underneath his nose. He must be damn frustrated at his loss lol.

I beat this guy by a mere second or so to grab the third and final flag.

 

Ninja Warrior NaFiMuYa!

So I managed to grab the final flag. Then we had to go for the confession stage and I gave a normal response to all their questions, which probably decided my fate already. I'm sure if I had given a much more "interesting" response I'll definitely be given a chance to be in the selected 100 for the actual event. Never mind! If there's one again next year, I'll train much harder for it! Ganbatte!

NaFiMuYa and family.

NaFiMuYa's pompom girls.

Can't remember the last time I was so athletic. Think can hear my bones cracking.

Never mind! I'll try again next year!

Can Momo be the female Ninja Warrior? YEAH!=D

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Sasuke Singapore Qualifiers 2nd June 2012

Yes no kidding! I've always wanted to take part in this Ninja Warrior game show. If you haven't heard of it, you're a mountain tortoise.

I managed to get Chian San to join the competition as well, but we were allocated in different sessions for the qualifiers. CS's was on Saturday, therefore Momo and I went down to Bishan ITE to support him. His reporting timing was 11+am, but we had to wait until 1+ before he got his turn.

The qualifiers consisted of 5 stations:
Station 1 & 2: 25 push-ups, 20 box jumps
Station 3: Tyre obstacles
Station 4: 25  lifts of medicine balls
Station 5: Walking across a balancing beam

After you are done with all 5 stations, you make a final dash to the finish line, which consists of 3 boxes with 3 red flags. Therefore only 3 out of a possible 8 of each detail will be able to get a flag.

CS managed to grab the third flag due to a bit of luck. The guy in front of him was turned back by the official just as he was reaching the last flag because he had made a violation on the wooden plank and had to go back and redo it. Therefore even though CS made a tumble just before reaching the flag, he managed to secure a flag for himself. LOL awesome! But he did had a nasty fall. Injured his face as he fell flat on the muddy ground. But still a true warrior!

And that was Stage 1 of the qualifiers. Stage 2 was a live "confession" stage whereby the producers will ask every contestant some interview questions and you will have to answer it in front of the camera. It's a way for the producers to pick out the interesting ones to be featured in the show and to be selected for the 100 participants for the actual Stage 1 of Sasuke Singapore.

It's Sasuke Singapore! FINALLY!

Part of the obstacle course.

Gasp! 8kg medicine balls!

Superman should have done better. He was last in the group lol.

All queuing up for their turn to be on national TV!

D146!

CS doing his "confession".

The mud patch that CS made during his fall actually resembled a Lion! ROAR!

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