What a sunny day
View from the balcony
After that, washed up and checked out. Had a delicious lunch at Bao Today which never fails to serve great dim sum. Then had a wonderful afternoon shopping at Bugis, and the best buy for the day was some rare Japanese prawn crackers topped with cheese, dried little prawns and seaweed flakes!
Ah Sir and I!
As the workshop lecturer guided us on using the products by demonstrating on another participant, we listened intently and we were then given time to play around with the makeup. One participant sitting opposite me scared me with her striking makeup of baby blue eyeshadow (that extended from the eyelids to the eyebrows, mind you), pink blusher and crimson red lip colour, and I meekly stuck to very mute shades of brown and orange. I did not want to look like a pastel painting.
Emerged from the workshop with a door gift and Ettusais vouchers, and met Ah Sir for dinner at LJS (our favourite!). After that, went shopping at Paragon where Metro was having a crazy late-night sale. Happily used my Ettusais voucher on their shimmery bronze and beige eyeshadow powder which I took a fancy to when experimenting with it. Now I believed the makeup workshop was a sinister albeit effective tactic to prod us consumers to spend our money on their products.
Retreated to Ah Sir's room at Swissotel, where we watched a corny Taiwan drama on Channel U that never seemed to end. Again, it was a posh and comfortable experience with the room's toiletries, bathrobes and bed! What was more, the room offered a stunning view of the city nightscape.
It was already 2am, so the bright lights were mostly out
I called for "3号妈咪" to be played, and Raymond was clearly enjoying the song because he was squeaking femininely and flinging a napkin in my face sluttily. I was quite caught by surprise and for a moment, I thought he was possessed by a mamasan spirit. We were all getting high and laughing away until suddenly, a botak man dashed to our tables and asked us if he looked fierce. We all nodded furiously, and he looked dejected and went out (before coming back and asking the same question again fifteen minutes later) . That was all I could remember for the night.
Was supposed to check-in at 3pm, but was disturbed when Caijie and the boys had already entered the chalet at 2.30pm. Apparently, they persuaded some old cleaner there to let them in first, WITHOUT MY APPROVAL. When I arrived, I was horrified to see them setting up the barbeque fire, AT A FREAKING 2.30pm! They retorted that a barbeque fire could burn for a long time, but that was not the point. I immediately ordered them to put out the fire and leave those burning embers alone. Suddenly the rain came and promptly destroyed those precious charcoal. Every 30 minutes, they would come and badger me to allow them to start the fire. Their over-enthusiasm was really wearing me out.
Slowly, everyone started to come, including Ah Tan. While those pesky kids ran off to the arcade or to the basketball court, Ah Tan and I holed ourselves up in a bedroom, chatting and snacking on butter cookies and chocolates! Ah Tan was really kind to buy satay and stingray for the barbeque!
Finally, I could not stand Caijie and boys, and decided to give them the green light, much to their excitement. However, they were quite inept at setting up the fire, so Ah Tan had to help them.
Then went on to get busy with mixing the syrup, preparing the food and monitoring the kids' movements. Had to be an irascible old crone and go around nagging at those kids: not to switch on the air-con (because I would be charged for the utilities), not to enter MY bedroom, not to use the towels as floormats, not to wander off too far on their own etc.
Because of an unpleasant racial conflict involving halal and non-halal food and preparation that occurred between some of them, I had to separate the pit into two sections for the Malays and Chinese. And after the fire had been set up, they then proceeded to barbeque the hotdogs and chicken wings. Some of the boys went splashing into the pool, which was right at our doorstep.
Ahmad hesitating before taking the plunge
Ahmad happily barbequing after his swim
Imran the Menace, with Ahmad and Maya
Me and Claira
Ah Tan and me!
A tantalizing spread of hotdogs, chicken wings and crabsticks!
Eating away ...
I thought it would be a breeze letting the kids do the cooking and me just sitting in one corner and munching away on a hotdog, but I was so wrong. It was back to the chase-and-scold routine back in school, because they were littering everywhere, refusing to clean up their mess after they had eaten, playing with water bombs, making secret trips to the Red House (I wished the ghosts could eat them up, but I had to answer to their parents for that) and up to all sorts of nonsense. I had to be perennially on my guard.
Slug soon came, some of the kids left, and I finally had a chance to eat something in peace. I wanted to barbeque some marshmallows (I had surreptitiously hidden them in the microwave oven so that the kids could not get their hands on them), but the fire was already out before I could do so. After that, made the kids clear up the barbeque area and realised that there was so much wastage going on, especially food like beehoon and chicken wings. About ten boys wanted to stay over, so they occupied the other three bedrooms (and I only allowed them to turn on the air-con after 12am).
After washing up, Slug and I were about to go and sleep when those boys complained that they felt hungry. They wanted to cook the leftover chicken wings using the stove but we feared they might blow up the chalet. Made them order McDonald's instead.
Did not sleep until 2+am, and was rudely awakened at 5+am by the boys waking up, walking in and out of those three rooms and slamming the doors. Had to scream at them. Did not have a good sleep, and at last, had to wake up at 8+am to prepare for check-out. Had to pay for excess usage of electricity (damn air-con) and a missing teaspoon, but Slug was delighted with the bounty of leftover plastic forks and spoons, crabsticks, chicken wings, napkins, trash bags etc, while I had that pack of marshmallows! Now we are looking forward to setting up our own barbeque soon!
Met Ah Sir after that, and had to return to the nail parlour to touch up the damaged paint. Went for coffee at Starbucks at Wheelock Place and Wee had the audacity to join us at close to 12 midnight. Her green tea frappe had melted into green tea drink.
Ah Sir and I at Wisma
Ah Sir and I at Starbucks
Ah Sir, Wee and me
Chatted over coffee, before calling it a night.
The sex scenes were realistic and steamy, although the part where Tony Leung dreamily sniffed Tang Wei's luscious underarm hair made me flinch. The family jewels shot was over before I knew it.
After that, enjoyed coffee at Starbucks and took pictures. We have a sexy fetish with whipped cream.
To end this post off, let me read to you a quote by a Chinese writer on the cut version of 'Lust Caution': "If they don't cut it, when the movie screens in China, 200 million men and women will imitate it in bed that night and in August next year, the population will grow by 100 million"
Hmm, looks like dealing with population woes is more critical than dealing with the censorship of those intense sex scenes for China.
