Jazz and Jesus

OK. This is gonna be a long update, because I have been putting off updating for a really long time.

Last last Thursday (that's 2 weeks ago, just to be clear), I met Len for drinks at Jazz@South Bridge. I'm sorry to say that I've never even heard of the place until Len asked me if I wanted to go there. When we got there, I found out that an old acquaintance of mine is the drummer for the house band! (Talk about a small world, eh?) The music was great, and we really enjoyed it. I haven't been to a Jazz pub ever since Eldee Young last came to Somerset's Bar (which has since been closed down), so it was a real treat.

But that was just the appetizer.

When the band had their break, Boon Gee, my drummer friend, came over to talk with us, and we got to talking about Jeremy Monteiro, who I last saw at Somerset's Bar, having a drink and enjoying Eldee Youngs's music. And who should walk in, but the man himself! He's put on weight since I last saw him. A lot of weight. But the owner of the bar convinced him to play that night and that was a real treat. He played a whole set before the house pianist took over again, and he was awesome. Afterwards, the owner sat down with us and chatted for a bit, before he was accosted by the people from the next table.

Jazz@South Bridge is a real jazz club and I'm definitely going back there one of these days.

The next day, my project team had a buffet dinner at Hotel Plaza Parkroyal to celebrate the completion of the main bulk of coding for the project, and man that was a great buffet. They even had sashimi, which was really, really fresh. I managed to embarass myself by taking pictures using an empty camera, and only realizing it halfway through the dinner. :P

Anyhoo, after that, we went to watch The Passion of the Christ for free, because one of my colleagues has a friend who can get free tickets for the show. I secured 4 tickets for me and some friends, and I met up with them at the cinema. The show itself was really interesting, despite being almost entirely in Aramaic and Latin, that even Esther, who warned us that she might just walk out in the middle of the show if it's too boring stayed on to watch it until the end. (I said "almost", because in the beginning I heard Jesus saying "Not tonight, not tonight". I could be wrong, though).

(Just a bit of trivia. Jim Caviezel, who plays Jesus in The Passion..., is starring next in a movie called Bobby Jones, about a golfer of the same name who retired at 28. Talk about versatility.).

Of course, the downside was that we had to work on Saturday, and naturally, everyone who watched the show came late. :P

Last week, on the other hand, was a long weekend. On Friday, Len introduced me to Yan, a friend of his from primary school. The three of us went to watch Taking Lives, which, incidentally, was a sucky movie. The ending was stupid, and Kiefer Sutherland was wasted in this movie. Kiefer Sutherland appeared only briefly -- not much more than a cameo, really. But I guess they put his name on the posters to sell the movie. The plot started off showing pretty good promise, but it was thrown away at about the 2/3 point of the show. The ending was absolutely duh and it was a total waste of money.

The next day, I went for my first Cisco certification session. The whole thing lasted from 1.30-9.00 p.m., but it was worth it. I learned a lot of new stuff from just one session and I'm looking forward for more. I just hope I'll pass the exam on the first try, because to have to retake it would be really expensive. Ah well... something to keep me occupied. Plus it looks great on my resume. :P