A Week of Feasts...

This has been a week of great cuisine and good wine, though I had few drops of the latter.

<Tue> Dinner with boss and the team at swanky Mezza9 at The Hyatt. Between XM, EC, WE and myself, we downed between $300 - 400 worth of appetisers, main course and dessert. A special mention to the delicious desserts! Strawberries and chocolate fondue... and the Mezza9 extravanganza which is a combo of crepes, alcohol-drenched pudding-like concoction and more! ... so exotic that I don't even know the proper name for them!

The meats were fabulous - tender, fresh, sweet. The seafood platter was awesome too though the lobster proved a tad bit challenging... most afraid our clumsy fingers would cause the flesh to fly onto some unexpectant diner's plate, or worse, face. Fortunately, the dinner ended blissfully, accident-free :)

<Thu>The company's D&D!! The feast began with a Movenpick ice-cream. I got a refreshing lemon and lime sorbet... yummy! The owner of the unit adjacent to Movenpick was rather rude to us, chasing us away for taking up his outlet space when we didn't buy anything from him (think he's just envious of his neighbour which got several hundred dollars worth of business from us that sizzling afternoon!)

Our games began with the Photo Hunt. Equipped with 6 modified photos, the teams were supposed to take a shot of the objects in the photos with their SE mobile, and then SPOT THE DIFFERENCE. That was one rather challenging game! Game #2 was pure brawn - dog & bone. The competitive guys would just pile up on each other fighting over the object (water bottle) that would earn them points to win the game. Third game was blow the balloon, which later, each team had to attack and burst as many of their competiton's balloons. The team with the most balloons left would be the winner.

Just as we completed the games, the rain came. It was gone in about 15 minutes, allowing us to venture out for showers before the BBQ dinner began. I'm not a big fan of BBQ, but if it's all done for me and all I had to do was eat, why not! That's exactly what we all did all evening - EAT.

Oh, of course, there was the lucky draw. The prizes this year were great and many - approximately 1 in 2 chance of winning. All the girls - WE, XM, YX and WS - got something from the draw but not EC and me. The top prizes went mostly to the ultra new finance girls... lucky!! Oh well, in a way, EC and I had something to bring home too - EC's team was the dark horse in games, coming in first when they were the most relaxed team. Me, having been part of the organising committee went home with a token of appreciation. So it ain't bad, and we enjoyed ourselves!

<Sat> Jeni's wedding dinner that I almost missed. Came down with a bout of flu yesterday. My sore throat had been developing since Monday, so I guess it just kinda exploded. My nose was blocked and I could barely breathe in the air-conditioned office.

Should have taken MC for the day but didn't think I was very sick, plus I really had to run through the schedule with S and the team. However, by mid-day, I could take it no more so I chose MC instead. Went to see the doctor, and then had a good 3-hour sleep. Felt better by night-time though the nasal cavity was still congested.

Woke up this morning still feeling a little feverish. Went out for coffee, right after which I decided to clean the floor. After a good hour of sweat, I actually felt great! Hmm... it could really be my sedentary lifestyle that is causing the breakdown in health...

I had to return the book that borrowed for the trip to Sydney. Gee, how time flies! It's been almost 3 weeks since Sydney, since the ultra fabulous U2 show. There was already a great number of fans gathered at the concourse of Compasspoint, waiting for the Star Awards nominees to appear. There were supporters of Terence Cao and Chen Hanwei carrying banners... not sure who else would be there. Darn, why wasn't (my favourite Mediacorp star of the moment) Elvin Ng scheduled for Compasspoint instead of Bkt Panjang Plaza? Sighz...

Well anyway, after I was done with the library and my shopping and the clock ticked close to 2, no star had yet appeared. So I went home, popped Disc 3 of KSS into the DVD player and enjoyed my favourite K-drama while mulling over my favourite Chinese brand of the moment (Haier) until I had to leave for Jeni's wedding dinner.

I love wedding dinners. I love to see all the guests arriving in pomp and splendour, and especially the bride and groom, they SHINE. Jeni looked gorgeous! She's already a very attractive woman, but tonight, in the simple yet oh-so-elegant wedding gown, she was brilliant.

During the course of the dinner, I was seized by 2 moments of emotional upheaval. Seeing Jeni's grandma at the bride's table and on-screen during the tea ceremony earlier today, I am reminded of Grandma. She will never be at my wedding. She must have so looked forward to my big day but she had to go before I am able to seal my vows with the right guy. But I know she'll always be there in spirit; at that moment, I missed her so much. I miss you, Grandma...

The second almost-tearing moment was when the song 月亮代表我的心 played. It reminded me of former President Ong who played this song in memory of the First Lady at one of the President Star Charities. It had been her favourite song, and the love he had for her was so great! Everytime I hear this song, I think of them. Alas, or at last, he rests in peace with the love of his life. God bless.

We all had fun. The little printout of our group shot was neat! Although I am not too fond of myself in photographs (I usually take shadows of myself, or my feet, like in this recent Sydney trip, I had plenty of those as the Australian sun shone bright), I think I look ok in this one. Hope PT has some time to sort out her OZ photos and check if Alan had sent over that awesome picture of me looking deliciously leggy in the final rays of the sun setting over Botany Bay.

Sweet Surprise :)

Haha!! Elaine and I got a really sweet surprise today. We're supposed to have our company D&D tomorrow, so the committee had to do a briefing so that everyone's aware of the process, dress code, games, prizes, blah blah...

After the briefing, our Finance Mtook over. We quietly filed out of the room because that was a promotion and increment announcement, and having joined the company relatively recently and missed the evaluation period, we didn't think we were eligible for a fatter paycheck so soon.

Or so we thought.

Until our Finance Manager walked over to our desks and handed the envelopes to us! We were ELATED. ABSOLUTELY ELATED!

It's probably the sixth sense... hmm, and if it's really so, it's friggin' creepy, I'm freaking myself out! But this afternoon, I had the urge to get my hands on the RED iPod. The Aids charity version. Elaine said, "pay for it with your bonus". I laughed. Paying with future money? Not to be made a habit of.

But now, looks like I don't have to. I can pay for it with "present" money. Hehe, quite literally :)

P.S. A funny tagline for New Zealand tourism in a mag - "Come now. If not sooner." Err... what can be sooner than NOW? Present? *still grinning*

Hallyu Camaraderie

This is SOOO funny!

I logged into MSN at half past mid-night, after a long dinner with the boss and the Trends department. Someone buzzed me - it's Harry, from way back. He used to help us with technical issues regarding video production, AV setup and DVD authoring. Gosh, I couldn't imagine why he'd wanted to buzz me, if he still remembered who I was. It turned out that it was his wife, mistaking me for one of her cousins who is a K-drama fan based on the MSN picture of Kim Sam Soon that I had.

We spent several moments chatting, exchanging tips on the latest and best dramas to catch... why everyone is so into Goong, I cannot comprehend. My sister bought the VCD (technically I was the buyer because I paid for it in a moment's folly!) and it's now making its rounds in our circle of friends. Sis watched it, but with the remote control close by. She was forwarding the discs more often than actually sitting through a scene. Myself? I caught some parts, but hmm... let's just say they did not justify my sitting still in front of the tv for a full 5 minutes. See, I am not so immersed in the Hallyu yet - I practise selective viewing. Only Kim Sam Soon works for me, or most shows with Hyun Bin in it, I guess.

Currently, I am tuned in to The Snow Queen, an adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale, which some say, is also inspired by the suicide of the youngest daughter of Samsung's chief last year. There is only Chinese subtitles, so it's really testing my skills in comprehending the dialogue and making sense of the story. So far, I'm following it fine. It seems interesting enough to have me want to keep watching, and actually piques me as to how a genius with everything going for him could spin out of control and spiral downwards in life.

Even though the ending is predictively tragic (since the heroine is terminally-ill and the hero seems to have lost his fighting spirit - coincidentally, he is a boxer), it may not necessarily be so. It could turn out to be a story about love, loss and the courage to pick up the broken pieces and put them back together again, to once again realise its true potential. That would be a good twist, for everyone is predicting a tragic ending, as Andersen would have liked it.

Speaking of Andersen, my colleague and I were so goofy, scouring the streets of Copenhagen for the Hans Christian Andersen store that we spotted on the city map when we were there for a presentation in Lund (Sweden) in September. We later found it tucked into a corner on the 4th level of a departmental store, much to our disappointment. We had imagined it to be housed in a grand 16th century cottage-style building made of stones with a roaring fireplace while mobils and clay models adorn the mantelpiece. Alas, what we found was quite a departure from what we had in mind. Nevertheless, we bought a mobil each, just to commemorate that little escapade into the cobble-stoned streets of Copenhagen on our first business trip to Europe :)

Hallyu ...

... sweep me under you

Who'd have thought ... the least of all - myself, that someday I'd fall victim to the ominously omnipresent Hallyu phenomenon in Asia.

I thought Bae Yong-jun was ugly. I could be bludgeoned by the millions of adoring female fans, I usually kept this comment to myself, or checked my back before offering this offensive (duh!) thought - to make sure there was no female species around, just in case she hailed from the "Yonsama" (as the Japs call him) fanclub.

I adamantly rejected any tour itinerary with the Hallyu theme when we visited Korea in May this year. Okay, we succumbed to a tour of the Dae Jang Geum (Jewel In The Palace) film site by the majority vote of our tour group, which turned out to be a rather delightful experience for cultural appreciation on a trip that tended to flaunt only the material side of modern Korea.

I cringed everytime an acquaintance commented on my resemblance to a Korean. Or Japanese. I get that all the time, much to my amusement. I've learned to live with that now, and honestly, I am sort of relishing the association as I slowly but surely become one of the Hallyu chasers.

3 separate incidents converted me -

1) That frustrating trip to Korea that I couldn't resist bashing, and the rationalising of (highly) possible beauty that we totally missed, and why we should make our own way there in order to fully appreciate the country and its culture.

2) The work assignment on the meteoric rise of Samsung as a brand had me researching far and deep into the Korean people, business, culture and history, and hey, guess what, the Hallyu.

3) Kim Sam Soon - sheesh ... this series got me officially hooked! When I first saw Channel U's trailer of this series, which claimed to be bigger than Dae Jang Geum, I was very much in doubt, but definitely curious. I had it at the back of my mind for a while and even missed the debut episode. The very first time I saw it, it must be episode 2 or 3, when Sam Soon was at the restaurant, in all her chef du jour confidence, introducing herself to her co-workers - "My name is Kim Sam Soon ... I am 30 years old this year" - and instantly, I felt an affinity to her. Ever since then, I followed the series diligently, although the crazy work schedule in August made me miss some episodes - all the more the reason to get the DVD, which I am running the risk of wearing out now ^.^

This is a series of modern Korea with references to its cultural roots, sometimes mocking them, and other cool influences from Europe -

* It is a cultural and societal obligation to obtain parental blessings in marriage. Class issues plague the relationship of Sam Soon and Jin Hun - they receive violent objections from Jin Hun's mother, owner of a luxury hotel chain, who obviously views the relationship from a class-prejudiced perspective. Sam Soon's mother, however, despite having reminded Jin Hun of their differences when they first met, is able to set that aside for the sake of the couple. Jin Hun, by opposing his mother and following his heart to be with Sam Soon, probably characterizes Koreans who are straddling tradition and the freedom to act according to the heart.

* There are several interesting European references that add to the richness of the plot and explains the show's increasing appeal to me -

- Sam Soon is a French patissier, having graduated from Le Cordon Bleu, a top culinary college in France.

- Jin Hun is the owner of a French restaurant, Bon Appetit, which serves only authentic French cuisine. Prior to Sam Soon, the chef was a Frenchman.

- The madeleine (a plump mini cake that is shaped like the kuih bahulu) is credited in a scene, with the mention of Marcel Proust's "À la Recherche du Temps Perdu" (In Search of Lost Time). Proust had described the madeleine as a "plump and sexy cookie", and I couldn't help smiling at the uncanny similarity between the madeleine and Kim Sam Soon. She did not read the book, however, because "it was too hard". Damn right. I have gone and found it at the library - a whopping 6-volume, 1000-odd pages per volume of somewhat autobiographical account of Monsieur Proust's life experiences. Hmm... I might venture into reading it someday, but it's certainly interesting to know of the existence of such a book.

- More book reference comes in the form of Momo - a little-known work of German author Michael Ende, who, to my immense delight, also wrote The Neverending Story! That is one of my all-time favourite - Falkor, the dragon that looks like a dog is right at the top of the list. Momo is a little girl with the ability to listen and relieve people of their problems. When the Men in Grey come to the village and convince people to save time for the future, upon which time will be returned to them with interest, the village people fall under the spell. People have less time for themselves, thanks to their "savings", and they cannot have fun, they no longer have time for their loved ones and the things that they want to do. (Doesn't this sound oh, so reminiscent of ... us, modern folks who are so caught up in mundane material pursuit, that sometimes we forget to have fun, saving it for the future?) But luckily, the villagers have Momo, Professor Hora and the magical turtle Cassiopeia to the rescue. (The moral of the story - live every moment to the fullest! Have some fun - be happy!)

- Toward the end of the show, and what a great ending the show has by the way, there is an adaptation of a quote from Mark Twain.

춤추라, 아무도 바라보고 있지 않은 것처럼

사랑하라, 한번도 상처받지 않은 것처럼

노래하라, 아무도 듣고 있지 않은 것처럼

일하라, 돈이 필요하지 않은 것처럼

살라, 오늘이 마지막 날인 것 처럼

The original quote from Mark Twain:

Dance like nobody's watching

Love like you've never been hurt

Sing like nobody's listening

Live like it's heaven on earth

- The actors and actresses, maybe with the exception of Hyun Bin who plays Jin Hun, are somewhat westernised. There are few Koreans who can converse in English, yet in this show, there are 3 languages being spoken - Korean, English and even French, albeit in just a few scenes. Even Hyun Bin, the archetypal Korean, speaks OK English, probably out of simply memorising the script. Daniel Henney who plays Dr. Kim is American. He is the closet lover of Hee Jin (as in he quietly, undemandingly loves her... quite the fool, if you ask me), played by Jung Ryeo Won who grew up in Australia and therefore, speaks fluent English. Hee Jin is Jin Hun's ex-girlfriend who left him without explanation 3 years ago for the United States to treat some acute gastro problem because she couldn't stand to be the bearer of more bad news after the accident that killed his brother and his wife, and almost crippled him. Kim Sun Ah, who plays Sam Soon, is college-educated in the United States, and can thus, handle the English language well. She even speaks in French when introducing herself to Dr Kim as Sophie, a typical French name. The other scene with French dialogue is when her ex-boyfriend announced their relationship in a Parisien pub when they were still very much in love.

* The realness of the show is the greatest appeal. It is fraught with insecurities, there is no typical "happy ending" although I think it ends great. Sam Soon and Jin Hun are together, although they never receive the blessings of his mother and thus, cannot marry. But as Sam Soon's narrative goes, "to be able to bake the best cakes and love passionately every day, and not to worry about things that are yet to happen" - that is most important. Think about it, how often have we worried ourselves sick, quite unnecessarily?

* The many "lessons", remarks and pointers woven into the luscious fabric of the multi-tiered script take time to uncover. On the surface, it is a very simple drama and that's the beauty of it. I have watched the show a few times, and everytime, I seem to find a new "lesson" or two. Interesting. And oh, everytime I feel blue or bored, I can trust Kim Sam Soon to lift me out of the dumps.

So really, my Hallyu obsession is only with My Lovely Sam Soon. I couldn't really care less for other Korean dramas, they bore me quite easily. Nevertheless, Korean music is now more pleasant to my ears than before. And to my own surprise, I sat through a Korean movie, "Almost Love", during the plane ride from Sydney just this past Tuesday.

Hmmm ... maybe I have been swept under the currents of the Hallyu after all.

v(^o^)v