see the original!

read in the latest cinebuzz newsletter that hollywood has released a remake of 'shall we dansu?', called (surprise, surprise) 'shall we dance?'. reading some of the imdb forum threads, i'd have to agree that there's no real point in remaking what was already a great movie...

while i might not feel as passionate about any anti-hollywood sentiments, i do recommend that anybody who rushes out to see this movie (whether through love of dance, richard gere, jennifer lopez, or just cos they had nothing better to see...?!), make an effort to view the original. sure you might not find it in your local video shop, but wait around for sbs to show it again (i've seen it screened twice).

and if you need your appetites whet for foreign films, take yourself along to the free korean film festival about to tour the country.


yeah, baby! :)

ahhh... you big mouth!

ironic, isn't it?

having "opened my mouth" to gripe about my job/wages, i'm now going to lose it! (i mean the job, not my mouth :p)

so there i was yesterday morning, cruising along as per normal... get up for a toilet break, and when i come back to my desk i find a note stuck to my monitor telling me that my section has a meeting with our manager, like now! wondering why the snap meeting and still blissfully unaware of the impending news, i take myself to the meeting room, and find out that "... your previous role is being eliminated in the company restructure taking place today."

ok so they are offering me a new role internally (which is more than could be said for a few others colleagues). it's a role which was previously advertised internally, and about which i did make an initial inquiry. but i did not feel it was a suitable role, and went no further. so now i'm facing unemployment vs said role.

said role is skilled, and should be a step up... but the only money promise i've received is that i won't be getting any pay cuts - which sounds suspiciously like i'll be getting the same pay, for doing more work.

mighty tempting, ain't it?

yeah that's what i thought...

raspberries... to virgin cc?

i applied for a virgin credit card a while back. they rejected me.

today i find out from APESMA that they've renegotiated with AMEX, and can now offer a better deal to its members. i'm still using APESMA's previous CBA VISA gold card, but it's going to stop being free (hence being replaced by AMEX) so i'm going to stop using it. so now the AMEX card is now free of annual fees and rewards program fees... only downside being the perceived lower acceptance level of AMEX vs. eg VISA. my parents got AMEX a while back, but half the time they end up paying for stuff on my sister's VISA (and reimbursing her later) cos their AMEX isn't accepted where they need to use it.

anyways, i wonder whether my virgin cc application was rejected because i already have a credit card with a $10,000.00 limit... the rejection letter said something about some obligation or whatnot about not pushing people into (situations where they can incur) more financial debt.

or maybe it's the fact that i don't earn enough for their liking i mean their criteria of being a responsible lender... there's a box on the AMEX card application that asks if i earn more than $40k... it's one of four questions grouped under "if you can answer 'YES' to these questions, you may qualify for the Card."

hmm...
well...
umm...
that would be a noooooo... not quite!
*sigh*... actually it's not even close...

pooh to my $51.83-per-week-above-the-just-revised-minimum-wage job. maybe i need to redirect that raspberry...

abandonment?

what are you supposed to feel when you're out with a bunch of friends, you all stop to look at something, and two minutes later you turn around and they've all disappeared from sight?! one slightly sour note on an otherwise pleasant and enjoyable night out, entertaining friend(s of a friend) from sydney.


dinner at MJ's (at the holiday inn in town) - another entertainment book venue. the lamb shanks i had were quite nice :) yep i decided to venture away from my standard of chicken!


followed by a spot of karaoke. everytime i go to karaoke, i end up wishing i could sing better... cos i realise/am reminded that i can't! oh well... stick to the car and the shower i think :p


then we had a pit stop at a video arcade, where we took turns playing this "para para somethingorother" game involving the co-ordination of hand movements to "instructions" on screen. the photo doesn't quite tell the story... but i don't have the space to store the few video clips i took.

SWANS @ the Indian Taj Mahal

an every-so-often meeting of the SWANS at the Indian Taj Mahal in new farm. according to the man who's recently had his share of authentic indian fare while in england, this was not quite up to scratch... it's about the fourth time i can remember that i've been to an indian restaurant - and i don't think the rate will quicken any. not that i thought it was bad, but just not my favourite taste i guess.


we had the deluxe banquet, and these were the entrees to start


the SWANS


(most of) the mains - the food certainly looks nice and colourful - and we were all quite full at the end... with leftovers remaining.