Self-awareness and self-control

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.

Disney's Aladdin Musical

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.

Hanging banners at the waiting area

The only picture allowed inside the theatre

Not a pleasant week

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. 

Weekend with mum and sister

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.

And that is my weekend.

Spider-man: Far From Home

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.

When work travel really means work

I was pretty excited for my virgin work travel but the novelty has worn off. I was dreading it because I had to fly on a Sunday morning and come back on Saturday evening which meant I wasted 2 days for this. Not to mention that the flights were with PAL and small planes. I would complain less if it was SQ. In addition, I had to settle the issues with my team. Sigh.. I hate people who backstab and now I have to set aside my personal anger.

My boss did not come with me this time so I had less stress. I could go back to the hotel at 4pm+ and to continue to do my work there. The bad thing was that I essentially had to work almost until midnight to prepare for the following day and to provide updates to my boss. It was definitely more tiring compared to my first trip in January when my purpose was for training and to know the people. For this trip, I had to plan things, coordinate discussion, and keep changing agendas since there were new updates (like staff promotion). I did not even go out in the evenings. Sigh..

I spent less than 5000 peso in January and I was planning not to change any for this trip since I had more than 5000 peso leftover. Thank goodness I decided to change USD 100 to 'test water' if the money exchange here is as troublesome as in Indonesia when it comes to USD notes. They are not so next time I will just use my USD notes. Not to mention that I spent more during this trip as I tended to splurge for dinner.

One of my colleagues brought her baby and she asked to switch room. Thus I ended up sharing a 2-bedroom suite with another colleague. The suite has a washing machine/dryer so it was a win-win arrangement for me. The downside of sharing a suite was that I spent time chit-chatting and that contributed to my late nights.

Thursday was emo for me as my laundry nets were missing. Pretty sure that the housekeeping took it and they did not even attempt to set things right. Sigh.. To add to my emo-ness, my comfortable elephant pants from Bangkok reached its end of life just after 1 round of washing: threads coming off and the whole pants just shrunk. The colour wore off and it made my VJC PE shirt blue :( Sianz..

Friday was teambuilding and I woke up at 4am+ since the bus would leave office at 6am. The teambuilding was at MB Cove at Nasugbu, Batangas. The bus journey was 4 hour long. I would enjoy it more if I were not so OCD about cleanliness. I did not want to bring back dirty and wet clothes so I did not play in the water at all. I actually wanted to try the inflatables :'( The sand was brown and initially I thought the water was murky. Looking closer at the water, it was actually quite clean from rubbish.

Not a fan of beach or swimming but I would like to try the inflatables T_T

Nice to look in photo but I was not really enjoying myself there

As people were playing, I spent my time in the air-conditioned karaoke room to sing with few people who also consider themselves as bad singers. Haha yeah so bad singers unite. I played some volleyball and I had bruises on my arms. The volleyball was already the lighter ones and the bruising simply means that I am old and my blood vessels are fragile now. I took a brief nap on the hammock as well. The weather was uncomfortably hot and humid although I was thankful that there were no flies, insects, or mosquitos.

Dinner was quite interesting: they spread long tables with banana leaves and the rice and vegetables and meat were placed on top of it. That was my first time eating with my hands in God-knows-how-long. The evening was so unbearable because of the humidity and the heat and the absence of any breeze.

I was knocked out before 11pm and I had to be thankful for the other 2 guys who fell asleep before me. The boys' bedroom happened to be the karaoke room and initially I was worried that people would be singing all night. The room was so messy and I did not know who would sleep where but since I was one of the earlier sleeper, I just could not be bothered and chose my spot first. I kept waking up when people coming in and still having conversation until almost 3am. Essentially I only had uninterrupted sleep from 3am to 5am.

Looking back after the day was over, it was actually not really a bad experience. I survived a day without internet since the reception was so bad. I survived sleeping in a room with 14 guys and common toilets which were ew.. Lucky the boss (not my direct boss) that came with me from Singapore allowed me to use the bathroom in her private room so for bathing etc was alright for me.

The bus ride to Makati took 5 hours as we made quick stops to get souvenir as well as Twin Lakes Tagaytay. It was too foggy to look at Lake Taal and Volcano, though.

So difficult to see the lake and the volcano. Photo also does not capture the mountainous terrain as nicely as what my eyes saw.

I tried to use Grab to go to the airport and that was a better choice than taxi. Another good learning point. Thank God the flight back was not delayed although I was irritated by the fat lady sitting next to me who had no consideration with the amount of space she took when she was eating. Why on earth she took a middle seat considering her size and inconsideration of others around her.

I was so tired from this trip that I slept through my afternoon nap from 5pm to past midnight yesterday. I forgot to switch on my alarm. Haha.. Because of that I requested to work from home today as my tummy was very gassy. It is not bad to work from home when there is a lot of admin work but it is not ideal for actual editorial work. Well, coming back to office tomorrow.

Anyway I should learn to be grateful. Last time I was jealous with people who got the chance to travel frequently in their work. Now that I get to experience work travel, I should be happy instead of complaining about being tired, not flying with SQ, bla bla bla. Forgive me, Lord, for my ungratefulness.

For now, I would like to rest until the end of the year. Going to 4 countries (Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, and the Philippines) in 2 months is very tiring. I am old liao.

X-men: Dark Phoenix

Right from the first trailer, I know that the movie will not be good but I never expect that it will turn out to be this crappy. The movie is bad in every aspect. Since the reboot of X-men movies, the actors are nowhere as good as the original X-men trilogy so let's not go into there. The action scenes are so badly CGI-ed and lazily choreographed that they are terribly unacceptable for a superhero genre.

The plot does not even attempt to weave a story and it feels so mechanical for the purpose of having the elements that they want to feature. We start with introduction of how eventually Jean Grey will manifest her Phoenix power, sub-plot drama among Professor X, Mystique, and Beast, Jean Grey losing control and simply flying here and there, aliens appearing to tap into the Phoenix power, sub-plot to somehow put all the characters together under one circumstance so that they can fight together for the 'climax'. Everything feels so disjointed as if there is no head and no tail for the whole story.

It is not surprising that this will be the worst of all X-men movies and will be projected to lose money. For those who hate X-men: The Last Stand (which is also doing Dark Phoenix saga), suck it up :p I don't know why there is so much hate for that movie because I think it is not that bad. Now we get this Dark Phoenix to show what shit really is. Lol.

Despite knowing that this is going to be shit, I still watched it because ultimately this is the last of X-men movie as Marvel has obtained back the rights to X-men. It is quite ironic and sad that the very first X-men movie kickstarted all the superheroes genre and yet it ends with this X-garbage: Dark Rubbish.

Conan & Spidey

I finally made the special trip to Conan mural painting at Chinatown yesterday morning. Thank you for a friend who was willing to accompany me to go there and help me take photos at 8am. We were both late for about 15 minutes. I had to end the fun earlier when a group of inconsiderate (read: bastard and asshole) bicycle group arrived. Obviously I was taking photos there and they happily parked their bikes around. I especially wore the t-shirt I got from the Fans' Screening and I brought to Conan shirt I bought at Tottori. Luckily the only photo I did not manage to take is the one next to Kaito Kid's insignia with me wearing the Conan shirt from Tottori.

The restaurant next to the mural was not open yet but they never kept their tables and chairs -_-

Conan is quite nicely drawn. And yes durian is nice!

Kaito Kid's insignia

The hidden Blue Sapphire

Honestly I am not a fan of mural paintings and I am here just because of Conan. Hehehe..

I went to airport for Spiderman Meet and Greet. Haha.. Just nice that I want to replenish my supplement so I thought I might as well buy it from the airport and get the pass for the Meet and Greet. I am quite disappointed with the Spiderman as he was quite padded. It looks as if he was fat rather than lean and muscular like the movie Spiderman. With body like that, his head appeared small and rather mis-shapen =x Nevertheless, I think the guy inside did a really good job with the variety of his poses with each group. I was quite paiseh since most people were parents with little kids sia. Haha..

Too bad I cannot keep the photo pass card

Today is the Pentecost Sunday and I had my first experience involved in a church bazaar. Pentecost is the feast day of the Church of the Holy Spirit and I chose to help out for the 7am-9am slot. I am not good with cooking or promoting food so I am happy to help with money and filling cups with soya bean.

It has been a tiring week and I have barely a week to recover before flying to the Phillipines next Sunday for work.

End of Bangkok trip

I only slept for 3 hours yesterday. My family's flight was at 6am and mine was at 830am. To make things simpler, I just followed them to the airport. I had trouble staying awake while waiting for my check in (desk was only open at 610am) and I was very happy that the eateries at Suvarnabumi Airport were already open: whether the usual breakfast or coffee places as well as sushi restaurants and proper meal restaurants.

I was still quite full and it was a dilemma to consume my last Priority Pass free lounge entry vs experiencing a lounge other than at Changi. I ended up choosing the second and I went to Miracle First Class Lounge. Miracle Business Lounge is just next to it and from the interior design, the names reflects the atmospheres aptly. Since both are Priority Pass lounges, it was a no-brainer to choose the First Class Lounge. The food choices were similar to Western spread of a typical hotel breakfast buffet (omelette, sausages, bacons) so I could enjoy. I decided to try Singha beer as I keep seeing this brand lol. Since it was free, I was not obliged to finish the whole can.

No more beer trying after this.. All beers taste similar.

I think my trip to the lounge is justified for the TOILET. Haha.. The toilet is special because it is a private toilet cubicle with sink, urinal, and toilet bowl. I normally avoid shitting at public toilet if I can but this toilet was really good. Haha.. There was even a pair of slippers provided to make 'manouvering' inside easier. Lol. Now I no longer wonder why this lounge is one of the Global Airport Lounge of the Year winner according to Priority Pass.

The flight back was initially irritating as there were so many noisy kids and babies and I wanted to sleep. Miraculously after taking off, somehow these kids and babies were asleep so I was able to catch on my sleep.

I was considering to return to office in the afternoon to save half day of my annual leave. In the end I have to accept that I am an old man now and I am too tired. I was crossing my fingers for Burger and Lobster or Shake Shack at JEWEL to no avail. The queues for both were madness. Luckily Pokemon Center had no queue. I am not a fan of Pokemon but cannot help myself from getting souvenirs =x

Pokemon Center Singapore special

Not something unique to Pokemon Center Singapore but Lapras and Pikachu are one of the more likeable Pokemons so who can avoid both together hehe..

There is Spiderman Far From Home event tie-up at Changi Airport currently. Like the previous Harry Potter event tie-up, most of the decors is cardboard and meh. The only interesting display is the three Spiderman suits for the movie.

Spoiler for the movie: the middle suit is called stealth suit or something according to the signage

Bangkok Trip Day 2

Today is the last day of the trip and I did not manage to shop what I wanted to get. My dad insisted on showing us MBK center (MBK stands for Mahboonkrong) which turns out to be rather rubbish. Instead of the feel of Thai markets, MBK center feels more like Lucky Plaza to me. There are more shops run by South Asians instead of the Thais and most of the items are not the usual Thai souvenirs. Don't even think of finding 100 baht stuff here.

We went to Platinum Fashion Mall and it took almost 1.5 hours just to wait for Grab and the actual ride. Yes, that is how crazy the traffic was. Now this is the shopping that I love from Thailand. Sadly, being unprepared for a trip means not knowing that the mall closes at 8pm and the shops are already preparing to close from 715pm. Sigh.. We reached there only at 6pm and there was simply not enough time to shop :( I only bought one bucket hat. Before entering the shop and trying, my sister said it was cute. As I was about to pay, my sister said it made me look like Korean ahjumma. Oh well.. 250 baht for a souvenir and to pay for my curiosity to see if this hat will flatten my hair. Initially I wanted to get the one with rabbit design but the inside of the fabric has some marker writings. The other one with the same design had the rabbit less conspicuous (the design is actually based on Alice in the Wonderland) so I ended up with a green leaves design.

I finished my remaining THB at Big C to get a discounted Adidas sleeveless shirt (700 baht) and red singlet (495 baht) with Superman logo. I still prefer the green singlet and the Mickey muay thai that I saw at Asiatique yesterday :( They are not cheap too! I just don't want to bring and exchange back the THB so never mind.

What made me rather happy today was fast food. I tried salted egg chocolate drink (no joke!) from Cafe Amazon. I was expecting it to be quite weird but surprisingly the contrasting taste actually worked. In the morning, my sister and I saw the chicken skin at KFC. We went to KFC at Platinum Fashion Mall but there was no chicken skin. I ended up getting Pop Zeed which is essentially like popcorn chicken. It was supposed to have 21 pcs but I felt there were more than that. It was spicy but not in a stomach burning way like McD's spicy mcnuggets. Hahaha... We bought the chicken skin at KFC Big C (the chicken skin is only available at certain stores) and it was not up to my nostalgia standard. I closed the day with pork burger from McD.

I accompanied my sister to visit LINE Village in the morning. We spent about 2 hours there and I personally think 990 baht is quite expensive. As a comparison, it is slightly less than half of 1-day ticket to Tokyo Disneyland or Disneysea. No way the fun or value at LINE Village is even a quarter of Disneyland. I am also not really a fan of LINE but since I was already spending money and time, I might as well maximise the time to take photos as if I were a fan.

LIVE Village consists of various rooms decorated after LINE characters. One thing that I must commend is the staff. Although they are not present in every room and their main job is to watch people not to damage things, they are very proactive in asking if we want help to take photos. Some of the rooms have mirrors and the staff also made effort to position themselves so as not to get reflected while helping to take photos. I am really impressed.

The experience here is highly dependent on the other visitors. If you are together with others who are inconsiderate and unable to share the space for respectful photo taking, you will be miserable. If you are together with others who are here to also take photos, usually it will be ok as we will respect one another.

I feel rather pissed at the end of today but I guess I should not be complaining. I decided that I am just a follower for this trip and I just want to spend sometime with family. It is kinda irritating that I did not really manage to shop but my bigger irritation is how we are always 'quarreling' every 1-2 hours over the simple things: where to go, what to eat, what to do. I am not really rigid with itinerary planning during travelling but a trip with zero planning whatsoever is really horrible. No wonder I am antisocial and prefer travelling alone.