I have been feeling unwell for the whole of last week. I was so tempted to take an MC to rest for one day but I told myself that I was not *that* sick and my last MC was only 2+ months ago so it is still too early. Noone stops me from taking MC but it is my own principle not to make MC a habit and anything shorter than 3 months is considered frequent.
It was a good thing I did not take last week as today I am really in pain. I had no complaint yesterday but this morning I woke up with neck pain. Most likely I slept in a bad position but this pain is not normal. The pain (when I moved my neck) radiates to the ear and causes a bit of pressure. When I ate breakfast, it was quite painful on the left side of the throat. Even sneezing or blowing my nose also triggers the pain. I took Anarex this morning and it was not helpful. It was still painful when I lied down and tried to get up from bed. It sucks when sleeping and resting are also affected. I decided to take the ponstan with lunch and I hope it will help with the pain without triggering gastric. Perhaps this is a blessing in disguise that God really wants me to rest since I have been neglecting my own body the past week when I deemed myself not sick enough.
Physical tiredness triggered all the negative emotions in past week. July is graduation ceremony time and I felt very jealous seeing people on facebook getting their masters / PhD. Otherwise the jealousy is about people getting award / recognition in their work, or about people getting married. I do not want to act holy but currently I am feeling pretty well spiritually and this helps me to guard my own thoughts and emotion from deteriorating further. After all, I don't think getting all these things that I am jealous over will make me happy and satisfied. For now, all I want is just good health (for my eyes particularly) and to be happy.
After 5 years of waiting, I am very excited that Aladdin musical is finally coming to Singapore. As promised, I will definitely watch it and I just watched the very first show at this noon. Unfortunately, all the wait and anticipation ended up with a disappointment. Changes are inevitable as not everything form the cartoon can be replicated on live stage. Sadly unlike the recent Aladdin movie whose changes are mostly for the better, the changes made for this musical brings more bad than good.
Being a musical, most of the good changes are related to the songs, dances, and theatrics. Aladdin gets to sing 'Proud of Your Boy' (a fantastic song which unfortunately was cut from the cartoon), Jasmine gets her own song (a different song from the movie or the Hyperion theatre), Jafar also gets to sing in addition to his version of Prince Ali, and even the Sultan gets to sing. Instead of Abu, Aladdin has 3 human friends so that they can do more singing. I am ambivalent about Iago being a human since he still does what Iago is supposed to do as a character anyway.
Now comes the changes which are for worse. Magic carpet is gone. Instead of being a sentient being, magic carpet is simply a transportation tool, or even more appropriately just a plot device to serve the A Whole New World scene. Because of Aladdin's human friends, Genie has less screen time which automatically is a bad decision since nothing or noone can be funnier than Genie. Comedy aside, the less screen time between Aladdin and Genie means their relationship is less developed and that ruins the emotional part of their friendship. The worst change that I find really destroys everything is Aladdin's characterisation. He is really like an asshole and does not deserve to be a diamond in the rough in this musical version. In the cartoon, he is more genuine: he helps Jasmine in the marketplace because he is naturally helpful and his fallout with Genie is because Jasmine falls in love with him. In contrast, the musical Aladdin flirts with Jasmine in the marketplace and his fallout with Genie is only after the Sultan agrees with the wedding and promises that Aladdin will be the new Sultan.
Moving the production itself, the whole show consists of 1.25 hours for the first act (which ends when Aladdin is turned into Prince Ali) and 1 hour for the second act (which begins with Prince Ali song). The first act is good while the second act is awful. The second act is supposed to be the climax but the final battle showdown with Jafar is too rushed and does not feel like a good climax. The fallout with Genie and the subsequent freeing him feel flat because their relationship is not well established to begin with.
The props are quite hits and misses for me. Two thumbs up for the costumes: they are colourful and provide an amazing spectacle. The royalties have crazy amount of bling bling on their costumes and they really look regal. The stage set up for the city, marketplace, and Aladdin's 'home' are good, Jasmine's quarter is fantastic, but the Cave of Wonders fails to invite any sense of wonder. With the focus is more on the dancing and singing, the props department seem to be quite neglected. 'Friend Like Me' is the best as it is impressive for both the props and the theatricals. 'Prince Ali' is almost absent of any display of wealth that Prince Ali is supposed to show off and is borderline lame. 'A Whole New World' only shows the sky and the stars. The final showdown is almost all about talking. No wonder I find the second act awful.
Honestly, I maybe biased because I have previously watched the Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular. It is a simpler production and yet it hits more of the correct notes. In fact, the only things that this Musical Spectacular loses out to the Broadway Musical are the stage set up for the marketplace and palace (which are only cardboards) and the costumes. Otherwise, Musical Spectacular trumps the Broadway Musical in terms of the comedy, the Cave of Wonders and the 'Friend Like Me', the 'Prince Ali' procession, 'A Whole New World', the final showdown, and the dynamics among the characters.
As a fan of Aladdin, it is really sad to have all these negative opinions about the musical. After all, I still have another ticket to watch on 11 August and this is for the first row. I think the show has been extended because when I bought the ticket, I bought for the final show. Now the run dates seem to end in 1 September. I actually bought the ticket for today (i.e. the opening show) only a week after I bought the 11 August and I only bought for the first row at the dress circle to save cost. I was expecting something special for the opening show but there was nothing too. I hope I will have change of perspective when I watch from the first row next month.
Thankfully the merchandises are worth buying so at least I still can have good memories from the musical. While they are not cheap, they are reasonable compared to the prices in Disneyland or Disney Store. I am thinking of buying the blanket again to use one in Singapore and one in Jakarta. Lets see how my mood. My friends commented that the plushies are ugly. I agree but I am quite immune haha.. I bought Aladdin and Jasmine plushie from Disneyland Paris few years ago which are also quite ugly. I think that is the fate of human characters which are made into plushies in this 'flattened' style.
$45 each for the plushie, $20 for the programme, and $40 for the fleece blanket
There still plenty of other merchandises: T-shirts (I heard that they are going for $40), keychains, an ornament shaped like the magic lamp ($30.. I was tempted to buy but I think it is too small to be figurine for display), a snow globe decoration ($85), tote bags ($20 if I am not wrong), CD, teapot (??), and so on.
I am thankful for the Filipino tourist and her mum (yes they specially travel here to watch the musical) who were in front of me in the queue to take photo with Magic Lamp. They asked me to help them taking photos and they returned the favour. I already bought the merchandises and was holding to the shopping bags and before my turn, the mum offered to hold my shopping bags. The girl was also friendly to compliment my Aladdin t-shirt. This photo taking spot is just next to the merchandise store so it is at the section after scanning the ticket. I did not manage to take any photo of the giant Aladdin banner outside at the public area which is quite boring with just a giant ass word of Aladdin. I shall end this post with the two pictures that I took.
The past week at work was not very pleasant. After more than half a year of peace, we were contacted for our consultancy project to attend an interview with the actual client. Just like before, everything was last minute and there was no clarity on the expectations of the interview. In the end, all my stress was not warranted because only one question was directed to me during the team interview. After all, the main focus was still on the IT aspect.
One thing that irked me the most was the pressure for me to "lie" to say yes / can to everything so as to increase the chance of winning. The thing is there is one practice area that none of our team was directly involved so I cannot claim full mastery on this area. Nevertheless, my integrity as a healthcare professional is more important and this is why business is just not my cup of tea.
Despite the plan not to, in the end I end up going to Japan again for the year end. Somehow it was a miracle to find a reasonable price for SQ ticket from Singapore to Tokyo. I am not sure why this year the airfare for flight from Jakarta is so expensive and almost 1.5x of the price from Singapore to Tokyo. Usually the flights from Jakarta are cheaper. So there goes my plan to have a holiday at home.
What makes me super pissed of is that the big reason for even attempting to find ticket is my sister's nagging and now that we are going, she does not do anything to help in the planning. I am kancheong over the planning because I do not expect that the hotel bookings in Tokyo for the year end period will be super popular. All the hotels that I stayed before are sold out for the new year period. Gosh.. My plan to stay at Disneyland for Christmas and New Year is basically ruined as the official hotels will only open online booking 5 months before the date. It is too risky for me to wait until the 24th and 31st. It is not me but I ended up booking alternative hotels that have free cancellation.
The bigger shock comes from the New Year's Eve at Disneyland. I thought it would just be normal operating hours but based on 2019 New Year, that was not the case. The theme parks closed early at 6pm on the 31st before opening again at 10pm. Basically it was considered a special event and the hotel bookings would be a separate one from the online bookings. Haiz.. Very very stressed. This is only Tokyo part of the holiday. I want to visit Shirakawago which I have never been before so where to go and where to stay have to be researched and decided properly.
I met a friend from the retreat earlier this year to catch up. Listening to his story, it is a reminder that I really should be thankful for the past one year as I left my previous job and I am definitely much happier with my current job. I can understand and empathise with his condition because I felt the same thing last year: trapped with a job that did not spark joy, lack of work-life balance, but yet having difficulty to find another job. For now, I can only provide listening ear and be an encouragement not to give up and remain hopeful that God will eventually provide.
I decided to start going for Novena on Saturdays at Novena Church. Honestly I sort of getting tired and desperate with my prayers: whether for my own health or for my family's. I went for 11am session yesterday before picking my mother and sister who were in Singapore for the weekend. I was quite lost the first time I went with my aunt a few weeks ago. After buying the book, I can follow the prayers and songs so I can appreciate the devotion better.
I saw the wrong terminal so I took the skytrain to go to the correct terminal. The skytrain travels across Jewel and it actually slows down at the rain vortex area. I think it is quite cool to advertise the place for tourists taking the skytrain who are not aware of Jewel. We went to Jewel as my mum and sister had not been there before. It was my third time here and I already found it very boring. It felt less crowded then when I went there for the first time. I am not sure if that means the hype starts to die down. Previously I came here at around 10am. Compared to my visit today, I will recommend to avoid visiting Jewel when the sun is already high as the backlight is too strong and your face will just be dark when taking photo with the rain vortex.
In the afternoon, my sister went for 5566 concert so I brought my mum to attend mass with me. The timing was just nice to catch 530pm mass at Sts Peter and Paul. I considered ourselves lucky as we still could get a space in the front row just behind the reserved rows for the wardens. I was surprised to find that the church is undergoing renovation again. The main church was just renovated a few years ago and this time the renovation is for the buildings around.
After that we just walked around Takashimaya and bought Modanyaki for dinner. It was a great day which unfortunately was spoiled at the end by a fucking rude Grab driver that I got. The bastard stopped at the wrong place (taxi stand behind the hotel instead of the hotel lobby) and indicated that he already arrived (which triggered the message in-app that I had to board within 3 minutes. I walked to the taxi stand and then he rudely asked me where I was and I replied that he was the one stopping at the wrong place. He still got the cheek to suggest "next time you should message that you are at the lobby". I just kept quiet to prevent any further awkwardness although I wanted to shoot back the app already indicated the location and stated to turn into the ramp to the lobby from the road and it was him who messed up so please stop acting like he did not. I usually do not give rating but this was a one star. I will not let this slide off just like that but sadly Grab has non-existent feedback channel. I PM-ed via facebook although I doubt if any action will be taken. Gosh.. What a reminder of the discussion at this week's Landings session on how the disciples ask if they should call fire and stone to the people who reject them.
After more than 16 years in Singapore, today was my first visit to IMM. Haha.. My sister went there earlier this year to check out the outlet shops there. It must be pretty good since she introduces it to my mum to take a look. I am not a shopper but I will definitely come back here if I need something. For example, I saw a lot of Nike at the ~$100 range (i.e. $89.90-$110 range) here. In non-outlet stores, this price range is limited to those under heavy sale with poor size availability as well. I was also surprised to see so many non-formal range at Geox. The next time I need a casual pair of shoes, I shall consider this instead of the usual sports brands.
We had lunch at Paradise Dynasty since my mum was interested in the colourful xiaolongbao. Initially they wanted to order one but I said just order two so that everyone could try more flavours. We were full but it was a right decision. I am glad that these colourful xiaolongbaos are not mere gimmicks. I tried all the exotic ones and I could really taste the cheese, ginseng, ginger, black truffle, and roe. In fact, the roe was very seafood-y which was not really suitable for my taste buds. Sadly, I found the flavour that I was looking forward the most to be the most disappointing: foei gras. I could not taste any foei gras there.
Spider-man: Far From Home is the first MCU movie post-Endgame so there is a huge curiosity to see where MCU will go from here. It is nice to see some tribute to events in Infinity War and Endgame but Spider-man seems to lack confidence to stand-alone. Tony Stark/Iron Man is gone and yet he is somehow still the main driving point in this movie. Far From Home hinges on Peter's struggle and decision to continue Iron Man's legacy while the antagonists are driven by personal grudges against Tony.
I feel that MCU has reached past its pinnacle in terms of story telling. After time travel that makes Endgame rather messy, Far From Home continues with plot formula that is usually bad for storytelling: illusions. Actually things are still okay until the end of the movie but after the end credits scene, I basically am asking myself and confused: what is real and what is fake. Is Mysterio dead? From the movie, I think he is but with all these illusions, it can be easily changed that he is faking his death. About Nick Fury: which is the real him and which is the fake him (Skrull)?
Despite the weak plot, MCU's winning formula of action and comedy is still going strong. I have to say that some of CGI effects look so obviously CGI-ed so it is kind of an eyesore. There is no actual fight between Spidey and Mysterio so essentially all the fights in the movie is fake. Jeez.. For the comedy, I have nothing bad to say. Some scenes are so funny that the cinema was laughing so loudly that I could not hear the next few lines.
The actors are not as awkward as in the first movie with their chemistry. I do not really like MJ in Homecoming but her character and personality are better developed here. Her chemistry with Peter is also a good mix of awkwardness and attraction.
One random thing that I have to mention is when Nick Fury is nagging to Spider-man, I find him sound very similarly to one of my favorite priest. I laughed when the nagging ends with "the choice is yours" which happens to be that priest's trademark line to end his homily. Lol.
It will be interesting to see how MCU will continue from here. I am hoping that the success will continue although sadly current evidence suggests that it will be difficult to top the original Avengers. In fact, some of the funniest or most memorable scenes in Far From Home are still linked to the original Avengers: Happy throws a shield decoration in a museum to the drone and fails and then he wonders how Captain America can throw shield around so easily; when Spider-man prepares for the final showdown with Mysterio, the two rubbles that he carries look like a reference to Captain America with his shield and Thor's hammer in Endgame. The most touching part for the whole movie is the tribute to the fallen Avengers at the beginning. I felt very sad when I saw Black Widow T_T Why must she die T_T And I am surprised that Captain America is considered dead. Well Captain America's fate at the end of Endgame is still a controversy and confusing thanks to all the time travel stuff.
