It was early in the morning. Everyone was shuffling about the house like zombies, trying to wake up and wash up so we could all make it in time for our complimentary hotel breakfast.

I was messing about absent-mindedly when one of the girls suddenly burst into my room and said, “QY! QY! Come and see the bag carrier!!”

I stared at her with a sleepy narrow eye and yawned at her. “What the hell is a bag carrier?”

“Unker Kell! WAHAHAHAHAHA! Come and see!”

So I lumbered into the other room and this was what I saw.

We spent a good minute laughing at the sight of a sleeping Kell being used by Elyxia as a toiletries bag holder while she prepared herself.

With eight people sharing two bathrooms and all half-dead from lack of sleep, it was a miracle we managed to not miss breakfast. We made it there at 8:30 am, one hour before closing. Breakfast was at the huge kelong restaurant, overlooking the sea.

The food was quite limited and tasteless but we had a great view and great company so that kinda made up for it.

After breakfast, while walking back to our villa, not really knowing what we were going to do next, we sauntered past the playground and turned into children.

The seesaw was the favourite attraction that day. But I never liked the seesaw (nor the swing) even as a kid. I just don’t like my body being forcefully propelled in any direction but natural forward.

But it’s okay if I’m just fooling around and not using them as intended.

Guess who was supporting all of us…

And what happened when he got up.

Then, Elyxia discovered that the seesaw could be used for wakeboarding practice.

For some time, the guys stood around her, giving her pointers and encouragement. And then, suddenly, they realised that I was hiding in a little house taking photos of them. Lolololol.

My hiding spot:

Anyway, everyone was too lazy to go out and just wanted to hang around and do nothing, so we spent the whole day at the resort.

One of the attractions in KTM Resort is the giant kwan yin.

It’s really huge. Can you see me and Minou at the foot of the sculpture?

A little background about it:

By the way, we could see Singapore from our villa. We could even see the Singapore Flyer clearly, but it’s too small to see in this photo.

We spent the rest of the day at the jacuzzi pool. Except me. Because of a multitude of reasons. So while the others were having a raucous time in the pool, I was hiding in a pavillion beside the pool, blogging.

It’s a sea salt water jaccuzi pool which drops off into a lagoon. There are rocks one can sit on at the edge. From my angle, it looked almost like they were sitting on water.

I mentioned before that the pool was dirty, but with the debris fished out and jacuzzi turned on, it looked decently inviting.

According to my friends, the jacuzzi is VERY strong.

When we met for dinner that night back in Singapore, one of them punched Morte, who didn’t go to Batam wih us, forcefully in the arm and said, “That’s how strong the jet is.”

And the entire pool was surrounded by jacuzzi jets.

My delinquent friends even made a game of it. Somehow, they managed to acquire a swimming float and they would assign one “monkey” to sit on it. The rest would hang on to the float around the “monkey” and then they would let the jacuzzi jets drive them around the pool.

The idea was to capsize the monkey while not being pushed off the float by the strong jets. The last survivor would become the “monkey” next.

Or something like that. I’m sure I got it wrong somewhere but I’m confused because the Goonfather and Minou told me different versions of the game. lol.

Anyhow, they spent like two hours playing this game, making a lot of noise and attracting a lot of attention in the process.

That was our second day in Batam, spending the whole day in the playground and the pool, playing kiddy games.

We had ice cream, too! Paddle Pop pirate ice cream!

I’ve been trying to find it in Singapore but I can’t. =(

So you know what that means? I need to go back to Batam again, soon. I might even try out the jacuzzi pool next time.

I don’t find vulgarities offensive. I find them funny and enjoyable.

People use them in daily speech to spice up conversations and to emphasize points. If not used specifically to insult and offend, I actually enjoy listening to conversations liberally laced with F words and whatnot.

I love when my male friends bicker with each other using swear words. I always laugh uncontrollably when they do.

Find out what other vices I have…

The new year is for playing old games!

So far, I have been making good on my new year’s resolution (aka spend more time gaming) by digging out all my old games to play. This week, I’ve played Grand Theft Auto IV, Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm and Penny Arcade Adventures Episode Two.

Peculiar choices, I know. I just wanted to start off with the more frivolous titles, the ones you can have fun with for 30 minutes or an hour, and then walk away without having to sacrifice a piece of your heart.

It didn’t really work. I still ended up spending way more time on each title than I’d scheduled for. I think I have been game-deprived for too long.

I don’t dare touch my RPGs now.

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Table of Contents

1. Penny Arcade Freaking Long Title
2. Grey’s Anatomy: The Video Game
3. Hope for Singapore game developers
4. Don’t forget this weekend
5. Get featured on Gamer Girl Friday!
6. Win a silver USB optical mouse!!

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Penny Arcade Freaking Long Title

The full, unabridged title of this game is Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode [ ].

I started off with Episode Two because the Xbox Team just happened to have a spare download code lying around. I never played Episode One (which is recommended because the story is a continuation and wouldn’t make sense if you jumped in midway.)

I’m not going into a full review because it’s an old game (in gamespeak, yesterday is old), but I just want to say that I enjoyed it immensely, even though I jumped in midway. I enjoyed it so much that I played it 1.5 times.

I completed the game within two days (could have been one day if I had started early in the day). And then the next day I played through half of it again just to get the last Xbox LIVE achievement. Yep, I managed to max out achievements for a game for the first time! (Well, it’s only 200 points.)

The Goonfather was very puzzled by my apparent addiction.

“Why are you playing this stupid game?” he asked.

He had tried it last year and didn’t like it.

The next day…

“Why are you still playing this stupid game??”

He thought the game’s boring because it kept making him read comics.

Well, Penny Arcade is a comic, duh.

The humour is quite wicked (although it’s not funny all the time) and the illustrations top-notch. I wouldn’t recommend it for kids, though, because of the liberal use of a certain popular French word.

The game has puzzle, adventure and RPG elements in it, so I found it very entertaining.

I guess you need to have a perverse sense of humour and an appreciation for irreverence to enjoy this game. I’m thinking of getting Episode One now.

Penny Arcade Adventures can be played on PC or Xbox LIVE (as an Arcade download).

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Grey’s Anatomy: The Video Game

Yoi requested that I feature more PC content for GGF. So, how about Grey’s Anatomy? lololol.

Apparently, you can play your favourite doctor from the hit TV series, enjoy romances with the other doctors, and perform surgeries. What more could we ask for in a game?

No, seriously. I have faith in Ubisoft.

The game will be coming out for the PC, Wii and DS. I might give the DS version a try. I like frivolous games because I don’t have time to play any other kind. ETA is March this year.

The response from the gaming community isn’t too promising, though. Some random responses from various gaming websites:

lonestarmt
omg…. why

J Wayne
FAIL

Dont Panic
I am at a loss for words, just…. really!?!

Pokrface
Will the game let my player character sleep with attending doctors to charge up my SurgeryMeter?

CapnRob
aw, heck. I was hoping for a _House, M.D._ game, in which you randomly guess one of twenty diseases, four times, and then the patient gets better. Or dies. Randomly.

Cwalat
can someone repeat after me:

FlopelyFLOP

Gary “ElfShotTheFood” McLean
Not even a Katherine Heigl nude patch could save this.

hagfish70
count me out.

Cajun Chicken
They’re concentrating on THIS instead of a Heroes game? What the HECK is wrong with Ubisofts choices of licenced IPs?

And the conflicting responses from fans of the show:

Svlad Cjelli
Well, my girlfriend is certainly excited about this. I came home tonight and told her about this, during the commercial break for Grey’s Anatomy.

tda-danny
My wife is a huge fan of this show, and owns a ds. I told her about about it jokingly and she replied, “Oh christ, that will be bad”.

Even people who dont know anything about video games & love the source material know this wont be good…

Reading comments can be really entertaining.

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Hope for Singapore game developers

Last year, a bunch of Singaporeans won the grand prize in a global Microsoft game development competition, picking up US$40,000 in cash prize and lots of recognition. (I wrote about it here.)

This year, the same team has been selected as a finalist in the 11th Annual Independent Games Festival for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize award. If they pick up this award, it’s another US$20,000 in cash prize and even more recognition and exposure!

Team Gambit’s success has prompted MDA to set aside S$50,000 grant packages for aspiring game developers in Singapore. Application is still open, so don’t forget to check it out!

I wish Team Gambit all the best for the IGF award!

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Don’t forget this weekend

Remember to drop by Xbox Xperience Zones (Best Denki VivoCity or Challenger Funan) this weekend to enjoy the launch of some of the most fun party games, ever!

There will be Lips and Scene It? Box Office Smash competitions going on throughout the day (11am till 5pm) so either come as a spectator or take part yourself!! Yes, you can just walk in and sign up to take part if there are slots left. (Each mini competition lasts about 15 minutes.)

Participants will receive this cool freebie!

It’s a microphone lollipop! Heh.

Also, you can get $20 Kbox vouchers with any purchase of Lips, Scene It? Box Office Smash or You’re in the Movies. It’s while stocks last so don’t wait already! I promise you the games are fun!! =)

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Get featured on Gamer Girl Friday!

I am going to take reader contributions for GGF now because you guys make me laugh in the comments. I’m giving you the chance to make other readers (who don’t read comments) laugh!

Okay, your contribution doesn’t have to be funny. I’m just saying.

If you send me something and I find it suitable for publication, I will feature it here with a credit to you and a link to your website, if you have one.

Some examples of what you can send me:

• Screenshots with a caption or description.
• Anecdotes (interesting real-life stories).
• Reviews of new games (not too long).
• Drawings you did.
• Videos you made (send me a link, not a video file).
• Links to interesting gaming news or stories.
• Photos of gaming events you attended with descriptions.
• Money.

These are just examples. You can send me anything you like as long as its not porn or a death threat. It must be game-related, okay, since this is a gaming column, duh.

Please e-mail all contributions to and mark it “GGF Contribution”. Include your name exactly as you would like to be credited, and your URL (if any).

Just note that only suitable material will be published. And I reserve the right to define the term “suitable”. I also reserve the right to edit your entry for better, easier reading.

General rule of thumb: It should be entertaining or at least informative. If not, there’s no point, is there?

Thank you. I look forward to seeing if anyone will send me any money.

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Win a silver USB optical mouse!!

From a previous contest, I realised that there are many people needing mice and, lucky you, I just happen to have another to give away!

It’s not a mini this time. It’s kind of halfway between mini and regular sized. (About 2″ x 3.5″)

The packaging says it’s white but it looks silver to me so, I dunno.

To win this, tell me what you like most about GGF by posting in the comments here.

Closing date is January 15, 2009, 11:59 pm.

All entries will be thrown into a pot and boiled into sludge.

The one that survivies will get the mouse.

Ganbatte!!

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By the way, I really suck at game driving. I failed an early GTA IV mission 11 times!!

The mission is a long one. First, I had to beat up some thugs, then I had to perform a violent car chase (violent because I kept bumping into lamp posts, mailboxes, people and other cars). Then I had to beat up a thug leader.

The beating up isn’t a problem; it’s just button mashing. But the driving really kills me, especially like when the thug car suddenly turns 90 degrees into an invisible narrow alley at breakneck speed.

It doesn’t help that the game camera keeps shifting perspective when your car spins. It changes perspective without warning, and left will become right and right will become left and it freaking keeps changing!!! Factor in having to deal with reverse directions and it’s one heck of a confusing toggle.

Compound to all that the fact that you’re chasing a car, meaning speed is imperative, and that the game keeps trying to foil you by throwing obstacles in your way, such as hugeass trucks that materialise in front of you out of nowhere, it’s just insane.

I set my car on fire more times than I can count.

It’s frustrating, although I have to admit that watching your car defy all laws of physics and nature is pretty cool.

I finally passed the mission on the 12th try, so don’t say I’m hopeless. If nothing else, I have patience and perserverance. lol.

Advertorial

The good thing about being a blogger is that you get to experience things you probably never would if you weren’t a blogger.

The bad thing is that, sometimes, you find yourself stuck in very high places.

I was recently invited to put my courage to the test at the Safra Adventure Sports Centre, where all kinds of adventure await the brave and the thrill-seeking.

I was first put on Singapore’s only Canopy Challenge Walk (CCW), a 100m walk through the tree-tops of Yishun Park, suspended on a height of 18 metres.

Eighteen metres is about as tall as a six-storey building!!!!

Looking at the trail from the ground, the CCW looked like a walk in the park.

I will never overestimate myself again!!

Being at that height and not having something firm beneath your feet is about as scary as it can get!

Well, it is literally a walk in the park, except that you have to walk on thin wooden planks which are supported by ropes that sway crazily when you move through them, sometimes having to fight off leaves and branches from the tree-tops that are sharing your space.

The worst part is that the wooden-plank trail is only one quarter of the trek. If you manage to survive the planks, you are rewarded by having to walk on ropes next!

And after you complete that (above), you will have to go through THIS (below) to get to safety.

One look at that and my face turned white.

Can you imagine walking through that with the knowledge that the ground is so freaking far away that you’d need to take a space shuttle to reach it?

Ashamedly, my friends and I only made it through the first section (the planks).

Looking at it from the ground, I really thought I could complete the course even with my fear of heights.

But actually being up there, clinging on to ropes that sway with your every movement, makes you want to just hug something solid and never let go.

Even getting through the planks required the most steely resolve I could muster. I tried to exercise mind over matter by telling myself, “This is fun! I’m enjoying it!” every step of the way.

It did work. It transformed hysterical paranoia to just simple heart-pumping fear.

Admittedly, the CCW is actually very safe. Before being allowed on it, we had to strap ourselves in safety harnesses.

I took Minou and Kerrendor with me for this adventure.

Minou was as scared as I was, if not more. But Kerrendor was very gutsy. He was my photographer that day and even stopped in the middle of the trail several times, one hand holding on to the rope while the other hand held the camera, to take photos.

For girls with long hair, it’s recommendated that you tie your hair up instead of letting it fly around like mine.

After putting on our helmets, Minou said she felt like Super Mario.

Then we were strapped to steel cables by a yellow lifeline which would follow us through the trail to prevent us from falling to the ground in case we missed our footing.

Then it began!

Iskandar, our guide, followed closely behind us to offer us assistance if we needed any.

After what seemed like forever, we finally arrived at the first docking station, which is a tiny wooden island with a pole which I wanted to cling tightly to and cry and vow never to leave it.

Of course, I did nothing of the sort.

We gungho-ly posed for photos even though we were paranoid that the wind was going to blow us off our wooden island.

And then it was time to turn back. (Normally, one would carry on with the tight-rope walking, but we felt that that activity was better left to the experts.)

I was quite brave, if I may say so myself. My yellow lifeline somehow kept brushing my face on my trek back, so I kept having to use one hand to adjust it, while leaving only one hand on the rope while walking!

And again!

My heart kept screaming at me, “BOTH HANDS ON THE ROPES YOU IDIOT!!!”

In any case, we all made it back before our hearts imploded on us.

That was quite an adventure. I’m glad Iskandar allowed us to turn back after the first segment, although I’m ashamed that I didn’t complete the course.

Rock climbing next! OMG.

The Adventure Sports Centre in Safra Yishun has five different kinds of climbing facilities, including ice climbing, sport climbing, crack climbing, slab climbing and indoor boulder climbing. You can check them out here.

I got to try the tallest free-standing sport climbing wall in Singapore, which goes as high up as 25 metres.

Again, I overestimated myself. I thought I could maybe make it at least one-third of the way up. But I only made it up like five metres, if even that.

IT’S VERY SCARY LAH!!!

In fact, I wanted to quit the moment I got on the first anchors because this challenge is seriously harder than it looks.

But Dean, my climbing instructor, kept egging me on to go higher and higher, telling me which anchors to grab on, until I got to this part where the rocks above my head began to jut out.

When you’re in that position, it just looks impossible to scale. It feels like you’re going to slip and fall because you can’t see the next anchors and your hands are slimy with cold sweat and your feet simply refuse to move.

I was also worried about the descent. The higher you go, the more distance you have to fall when you’re done!!

The safety harness for the climbing is not as elaborate as that for the CCW.

But it’s just as safe. You’re strapped to a belay device, which allows your instructor to keep you in the air even if you were to let go of the anchors (I didn’t know that before, which helped to fan the paranoia).

And when you’re ready to come down, your instructor will belay you down as slowly or as quickly as you want.

It’s all very simple and safe.

BUT NO LESS SCARY.

Dean showed me where to step when I first began.

The first step was quite easy.

It gets exponentially harder!

See the green anchor I have my left hand on (above)? I had to put my left foot on it next.

IT IS FREAKING FAR. You really have to stretch all your limbs to get to the next anchors.

You need strong arms for this, too.

Next step up: Right foot had to travel all the way up to waist level to step on the next anchor.

I don’t know how I did it. I just did, with Dean’s encouragement.

I was, like, “I can’t do this anymore!” *wail*

And he was, like, “Yes you can. Put your right hand on the next anchor.”

“Can I come down now?”

“No.”

“Argh! I can’t go any higher!”

“Yes you can!”

So I went higher and higher.

See how far my left foot had to travel in one step:

I felt like Spiderman.

Anyway, that was as far as I went. It started drizzling at this point and I didn’t want to be stuck on that wall in the rain.

And it was getting impossible.

So, when Dean told me to stretch my right hand out and grab hold of one particular anchor which looked to me like it belonged in another continent, I put my right foot down, instead.

He finally relented. “Okay you can come down,” he said.

“How do I come down?”

“Just let go.”

“WHAT?!!!! You’re joking, right?”

“No, just let go.”

“Can I climb down the way I climbed up?”

“No.”

*scream*

At this point, you’re supposed to hold on to the rope attached to your harness and your instructor will bring you down.

Of course, I didn’t know at that time that the speed of your descent can be controlled. I thought it was all up to gravity, and I let go very unwillingly.

I screamed the entire way down.

In retrospect, it wasn’t all that scary.

But it was definitely fun. I want to do this again!

Minou and Kerrendor didn’t get to try it because the drizzle started to get heavier and heavier.

I took one last photo before dashing off for shelter.

Me and Dean!

I need a Safra Country Club membership!! It can be used at any of the four Safra Clubs (Mount Faber, Yishun, Tampines and Toa Payoh). Each club boasts a different specialty, although all of them also have the regular facilities you’d expect to find in a country club.

Safra Yishun is the most exciting, since it houses the Adventure Sports Centre as well as an indoor air weapons range.

I didn’t get a chance to try the parachute jump and the abseiling, which is fortunate!! Haha.

I also didn’t try this other climbing wall.

It’s a crazy wall lah!! It bends outwards!! How to climb that??!!!

But I saw this dude climbing it expertly.

These people are the real spidermen!!

Anyway, I also did something else in Safra Yishun which is just as fun but minus the fear factor.

This was with Jayden at a separate occasion.

Air rifling in the indoor range! It’s VERY FUN! And, again, harder than it looks.

The target is very small!! But I think we did pretty well, considering it was our first time.

It’s really quite hard to be accurate because the air rifle is very heavy and when you’re looking through the tiny scope, it will keep moving even though you’re trying to keep as still as possible, even if you resort to holding your breath.

After a few shots, we graduated to even smaller targets!!!

That was really hard.

We had a friendly competition after some training. Three rounds of six shots each. But our arms were aching by then and we didn’t do as well as during the practice.

I lost by two points.

Jayden’s cards are the three on top. Mine are the bottom ones marked with a V (for Venus).

By the way, the Safra Yishun Indoor Air Weapon Range is designed to International Sports Shooting Federation (ISSF) standards and is the biggest in Singapore.

There is also a Group Marksmanship Training Simulator where you can shoot at enemy soldiers. Uh, computerised ones, not real ones.

We didn’t get to try that but it looks fun.

I never knew there were so many fun things to do at Safra Country Club! The best thing is that the membership fee is very affordable. It’s available to all NSMen and their spouses/children.

Between all the four clubs, you can enjoy virtually anything and everything. There are also tons of activities planned for members all the time, as well as interest clubs organised for all kinds of hobby groups, from gaming to music and movies to archery, and more.

Click here to find out more about Safra Country Club. No excuses for being bored during weekends or holiday periods!

The first photo I’m going to show you today is an upskirt photo.

In fact, many upskirts!

Honestly, they could have picked a better place to show off their skirts.

This was taken in Nagoya Hill Shopping Mall.

The last time I went there (about a year ago), I was shocked by the offerings. It’s quite a big mall, maybe as big as Ngee Ann City? (Don’t shoot me if I’m far off. I’m bad at gauging size and distance.) But most of the stuff sold there was like 30 years behind fashion.

I just ended up buying some shoelaces and bling stickers and potato chips. =P

So, this time, when I saw the upskirt display, I was quite excited. From that distance, one of the skirts looked like something I would wear, although not to stand by a second-storey glass window.

We went upstairs to find it. It’s a big store, about four times the width of what you see in the first photo. And the damn skirt was nowhere in sight! Argh.

So I didn’t buy anything but snacks this time.

WOOH SNACKS~~!

Our lovely shopping cart after we were done:

I love shopping for snacks more than I love shopping for clothes and shoes!!!

(Partly because snacks are cheaper, lol.)

Everything in the shopping cart was the work of the girls. The guys only contributed one item in there: A 24-can carton of Heineken. (It’s hidden below the pile of snacks cos it was the first thing that was grabbed when we stepped into the supermarket.)

The whole lot cost us only S$92!!!! Including the beer! OMG. Split seven ways, we only paid like $13 each!!

What an unhealthy holiday. We had pizza and steak for lunch at a western-style restaurant.

I didn’t really enjoy it because I was a little too sleep-deprived to enjoy food and also because my tenderloin steak was crumbly.

That was seriously the worst tenderloin steak I’d eaten in my life. It wasn’t cheap, too, at $10.

The pricing was a little dubious. For $10, you could also buy a meal that includes two personal pizzas (size of a stretched palm), one chicken steak and two cokes. I think those tasted miles better than my atas $10 tenderloin, if my friends were to be believed.

After lunching and shopping, it was about 5 pm. We decided to head for a massage at the Sports Massage Centre. I think they’re quite big and have several branches in Batam.

The centres all look really dingy from the outside (no photo because I don’t as a rule like to take photos of ugly things) but the inside is nicely decorated and there are at least three storeys of massage rooms.

I took the milk bath package which includes a one-hour full body massage, half-hour body scrub, 15-min jacuzzi milk bath and 15-min sauna. All for about $38 after conversion.

They gave us private rooms with attached bath tub and steam/shower stall, although the “rooms” had no doors. The whole damn floor only had curtains.

And funny signs.

I am still in the process of appreciating massages. It’s really hard for me cos I’m super ticklish in many parts of my body.

People are supposed to be relaxed when being massaged but I have to tense up my whole body in order to control the ticklishness to manageable level. Even then, I can’t stop bursting into giggles and shaking violently at specially ticklish parts.

(The first time I went for the same massage a year ago, it was painful and ticklish at the same time, so I was either screaming or giggling through the hour.)

By the time the massage was done, I was exhausted and managed to drift off to sleep for a while during the body scrub. Except it was hard to sleep cos the masseur kept waking me to turn over or tie my hair or something.

The scrub was nice, though. Very shiok and not ticklish. (I can’t think of a comparable English word for shiok for this occasion!!)

The sauna was nice except that I couldn’t stay in there too long. It’s so hard to breathe steam! I had to keep opening the little door to let out the steam when it got heavy, which kinda diluted the effect of everything.

But I liked how my cheeks glowed after that! Unfortunately, the effect didn’t last. Next time I’ll take a photo!

My jaccuzi milk bath… went down the drain even before I had the chance to sit down properly because I fiddled with the wrong knobs and couldn’t figure out how to get the drainer to close again.

I totally do not get spas.

By the way, the milk bath was a little disappointing, even before the fact that I drained it prematurely. It wasn’t milky white like I expected, but a murky barley colour.

But I will try it again next time. I think the jacuzzi would be quite shiok also.

We went for dinner after this and then back to our resort to chat and eat snacks. The guys tried to finish their 24 cans cos we can’t bring it back to Singapore. Haha. I think they all got a little beer overdose after that.

By 4 am, I tried to sleep. Exhausted as I was, I couldn’t sleep because of the snoring symphony.

And then it was 7 am and alarm clocks started ringing. OMG.

End of Day 1!