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Can you solve this clue?

The remnants of a fortress are all that remain in this area once known as Forbidden Hill.

This and four other similar clues to locations in Singapore were what awaited the Goonfather and me at the Garmin-Asus Live-Navigation Challenge on Dec 19.

(I had to paraphrase the above clue a bit because I forgot to take a photo of the clue card.)

It was so, so so so so so fun!! I wasn’t eligible to win prizes but the organiser said my friends were, so I urged all my friends to take part. But only the Goonfather was free on that day so I made him sign up!

The challenge was to start at 1 pm with the first clue being SMSed to him.

It started raining at 12:30 pm, making us worry because we were already outside and we didn’t have an umbrella.

The first clue led us to Kreta Ayer Community Centre. (The clue said something like “This used to be Banda Road Community Centre” and I’m paraphrasing very much because the Goonfather has deleted the SMS.)

As luck would have it, we were already on the road nearby when the SMS came in.

It took us a few minutes to check with Mr Google and then arrive at our destination. We had to search for a bit once we reached the community centre, but it wasn’t too hard to find the pitstop.

The crew was really amazed to see us. They were, like, “How did you guys get here so fast?! We just sent out the clue only!!”

After marking his attendance, the Goonfather was directed to a mini-game challenge. He had to use the provided Garmin-Asus M20 to locate the eatery nearest to the Singapore Art Museum.

I made him stop work for awhile to camwhore with me.

LOL. I know! Totally sabotaging his momentum!

Anyway, once he completed the task, we were given our next clue.

The Goonfather said, “Some kinda toy museum.” And I immediately thought: “MINT!”

It’s a toy museum at Seah Street which I’ve been to before, for an event. In just a few minutes, we were there. We got a bit wet getting to the place from the carpark. It rained unrelentingly throughout the day.

There, a jigsaw puzzle and a mulltiple choice question about the museum awaited us.

There was a five-minute time limit for the jigsaw puzzle. I think we completed it in about four.

Done!

Next clue!

Easy!

But when we reached Telok Blangah Hill, we saw that it wasn’t easy after all because it was pouring by this time, and the wedding area was high up on a hill that could only be accessed by foot!! And we had no umbrella!

Fortunately, I had a windbreaker with a hood, so I managed to protect my upper body a bit. But the poor Goonfather got soaked.

It was quite an experience trying to race up a hill in pouring rain! We were really wet and huffing by the time we arrived.

The activity here was easy. We just had to match phone icons to their names. Done in a minute!

And, of course, I had to waste time posing for photos!

When I asked the crew to help us take a few photos, they were quite incredulous because they thought we should be rushing to the next location already, lol! They were, like, “Go go go and good luck!!”

And then it was another trek down the hill. The Goonfather refused to run so we took a leisurely stroll in the rain. O_o

Back in the car and really wet:

Well, only my legs got really wet since my upper body was protected by my windbreaker.

Another easy location:

We found the place (Red Dot Design Museum) easily, but we went into the wrong entrance so we had a big distance to travel through the building to find the pitstop.

The challenge here was to randomly pick a question from a box and then answer it. I can’t remember what the question was. I just let the Goonfather do the job while I busied myself taking photos.

The next clue we received was the one I mentioned right at the start of this post.

The answer is, of course, Fort Canning Park! Google really helped us a lot in this race. The GPS on the Garmin-Asus would have helped, too, had I been doing this alone. But because the Goonfather is like a walking street directory, he just zipped from location to location without needing external help.

Another long trek in the rain at Fort Canning. We parked at the bottom of the hill, walked through the park and through Fort Canning Centre trying to find the pitstop. (The Goonfather is averse to running.)

We finally located it behind the building, some place called Battle Box, which I never even knew existed.

When we got there, we discovered that it was the final stop and the Goonfather had come in 4th place! All we had to do then was wait for more participants to arrive so the prize-giving ceremony could start.

The Goonfather won a Garmin-Asus G60. Cooooool!

After all 15 winners received their prizes, Garmin-Asus sprung a surprise. They called out my name and made me go up to receive a token of appreciation!

Aww! So sweet! =) It was a $100 Takashimaya gift voucher. Just in time for Christmas shopping!

Group photo of some of the winners:

Well, what a fun event! I really think the Garmin-Asus crew did a great job putting this game together. It was very well planned and executed. Even the Goonfather enjoyed the challenges, despite the rain. For me, I think the rain added to the fun and excitement.

Let’s hope they do this again! I bet all my friends regret not taking part now!! Hah! =P

I watched Avatar in 3D with my friends at Lido last night. We each received good quality 3D specs at the door.

There were repeated reminders outside the cinema, as well as on the cinema screen, as well as audio messages, for us to return the specs in good condition at the end of the movie, failing which we would have to pay $10.

All good there.

We watched the movie and immensely enjoyed three hours of a gripping story set in a fantastic, vibrant world.

And then the movie ended and the credits started.

Accompanying the initial credit roll were awesome 3D footages of the world of Navi accompanied by awe-inspiring music.

Unfortunately, we never got to enjoy it. Two seconds after the credits rolled, lights flooded the cinema, the music was muted and a recorded announcement came on, reminding us to return the 3D specs, failing which we would have to pay $10, blah blah.

I was annoyed.

The movie had ended too soon and I craved more of it. I was sad at having to say goodbye to the world of Navi and I wanted to enjoy the ending music and footages to continue the illusion of still being immersed in the world.

The recorded announcement and muting of the music shocked us out of our immersion like icy cold water to the face.

We endured the announcement for about 20 seconds, waiting for the music to come back. The screen was still showing footages of 3D scenery but it was hard to watch since the lights were all on.

Then the announcement ended but the music didn’t come back.

Three seconds later, the announcement started again. The same damned announcement all over again.

I was very, very annoyed. By muting the music, turning on the lights, and playing the stupid announcement, Lido had robbed us of our final few minutes of enjoyment of the movie, an experience which would have given us the closure we needed to wrap up our otherwise impeccable experience of the movie.

It’s like sex without a proper climax.

Did they really need to remind us to return the specs over and over again? After all, there were two guys collecting the specs outside a very narrow exit doorway.

No one could possibly escape.

We left the hall and the Goonfather demanded to see the manager.

We were shocked at what the night manager had to say.

He said we weren’t the first people to complain. Unfortunately, he can’t do anything about it because he is only following orders.

The management of Shaw Theatres had ordered the recorded announcement to be played before the movie officially ended. And even with repeated complaints and suggestions to play the announcment later, the management refused to budge.

The answer was, “Don’t care them lah.”

The manager also said that, by right, it wouldn’t hurt to allow patrons to take the specs home. After all, we paid extra for them. The tickets cost $14 each.

But Shaw wants to make more money, so the specs are collected back and recycled.

The manager also told us that care is taken to wash the specs thoroughly before they are reused, but he was probably lying. When we collected our specs, they were all greasy and covered with fingerprints on the lenses.

In the end, there was nothing we could do. Nothing he could do. He told us to complain directly to the Shaw Theatres management and, maybe, if more people complained to them, they would take notice.

This is very disappointing. Not only did they rob movie goers of the last few crucial minutes of enjoyment, the management of Shaw Theatres also showed great disrespect to filmmaker James Cameron.

To truncate his movie like that!

How grave is the insult for a pioneer of Singapore’s movie industry (Shaw made movies in the early 1900s) to disrespect a film like that, and all for the fear of losing a few plastic spectacles?

I am deeply disappointed.

Be warned. If you’re going to watch Avatar in 3D (and I absolutely recommend that you do), don’t watch it at Shaw Theatres.

Okay, I’ve decided to blog on my phone cos I’ve hardly been home since Christmas Eve. Been out bumming with friends!

I’m in the car right now. The Goonfather wants to buy an iPhone today (hah! finally!) and he’s driving around looking for a Hello! Shop and I’m bored.

He has finally passed out his kidney stone but is still taking medication cos it still hurts somewhat.

(I have lots of pictures of the stone. Do you want to see it?)

I’m also on medication. I got a sore throat on Christmas Eve (of all days!!) and I also got cramps on the very same day (!!!#£&@) so I went and bought some sore throat pills.

The pills work really fast (doesn’t hurt anymore) but they make me feel a little drowsy, like I have cotton stuffed in my head, so I’ve been celebrating Christmas with a cottony head.

We didn’t do much. Four people were sick to varying degrees, and a few felt lethargic due to the rainy weather. So all we did the past two days were eating, exchanging presents and playing Agricola.

It still feels nice being with friends. On Christmas Eve, while they played Agricola, I was slumped in a couch reading (to take my mind away the annoying pains in my throat and innards). And it felt good, just being in the company of good friends.

We’re kind of addicted to Agricola now. It’s a strategy board game not unlike Settlers of Catan and it’s the best board game I’ve ever played.

I’m also addicted to the book I’m currently reading: The Other Boleyn Girl. I wanted to watch the movie but missed it so I bought the book when I saw it for sale at the MPH book fair.

It’s an amazing piece of work. Highly recommended. I’m going to watch the movie once I’m done with the book!

The Goonfather is still driving around WTF. I have no idea where he is going and I’m sick of typing on my phone so I’m going to stop now. Getting nauseous!

Have a great weekend, happy boxing day and stay well!

We were at Tanglin Mall. The boys had had a bit too much to drink at Chili’s. They came upon a BMW.

“Awwright, man, bro!” said the Goonfather to Unker Kell, “When did you collect your new BMW Z3?”

“BWAHAHAHAHA,” said Unker Kell, “Come, let me take you out for a spin!”

The two tottered drunkenly over to the BMW and attempted to get in together, all the while laughing and insulting each other, as men are wont to do.

They discovered that they couldn’t both fit in the car at the same time.

“Okay, okay,” said the Goonfather, “You sit tight. I’ll drive!”

After a bit, they both gave up and collapsed into a heap of useless guffawing Y chromosomes.

Epic fail.

I’m blogging from a two-bedder ward in Raffles Hospital.

I’m not the patient, though. It’s the Goonfather.

He gave us a scare last night when he suddenly suffered intense pain all around his torso, so much so he could hardly walk and talk and his whole body was drenched in cold sweat.

The pain started in the middle of the afternoon, then subsided a couple of hours later.

It started again around 8 pm and went on a downward spiral through the night, getting worse and worse despite painkillers.

It was quite a traumatising night. For him because he was in unbearable agony. For me because I was so helpless.

Fortunately, Unker Kell, Kerr and Minou were with us. We were supposed to have dinner together when his pain got so bad that we called his doctor, who told us to send him to the hospital.

Everyone forgoed dinner to rush him to the hospital, which was so good of them.

The Goonfather writhed about in pain for a few hours on the A&E bed while the hospital prepared the CT Scan for him. They gave him three jabs in total but the pain didn’t start to subside until two or three hours later.

Much later, after the scan and intense waiting, a doctor came in to confirm that the Goonfather has a kidney stone and that he would need to be warded.

The doctor also said his pain was worse than childbirth.

How horrible.

While we were in the car rushing him to the hospital, he kept moaning and saying that his kidneys were going to explode and that he couldn’t hold on any longer.

He seems to be fine today, though. He even sneaked out for a smoke. And he was talking about sneaking out to Iluma to play arcade games.

-_-

Right now, he’s under observation and undergoing blood tests and X-Rays to determine the course of treatment.

But he says he can feel the pain lingering and threatening to come back so that’s scary.

Hope it doesn’t!

Can you spot the hospital escapee?