Return Of The Matt

Matt is here for his 3rd visit! Almost exactly a year ago, he helped Alec throw me a surprise birthday party and firmly established himself as my favourite male karaoke singer. Six months later he did us the honour of co-MCing our wedding, and in another karaoke session, gave me the first sign from God (2 more signs soon followed but that’s another blog entry) that I must learn to sing Master of Puppets as the next crucial stage of my karaoke journey.

This visit, I’m really happy we’ve finally been able to relax and have fun with him without needing to juggle lots of other stuff. Also, I love taking photos of Matt because they always come out as great records of good times had. Conversely, when I take photos of myself and/or Alec, our presence manages to suck all life and spontaneity out of the photo, leaving a photogenic void nearly as repulsive as Lemon Blowjob Face girls.

Here is Matt in Singapore’s most ludicrously OTT bar.

They don’t let you take photos unless you’re taking photos of your friends, and my surreptitious photos really didn’t do it justice, but let’s just say the bar at Parkview Square has just earned its place on Michelle’s Tours Of The Singapore Lots Of Tourists Don’t See But Which Is Freaking Hilarious And Way More Fun Than Clarke Quay (estab. 2003 with rave reviews ever since).

Here is an action shot of Matt playing my favourite minigolf. (I WON YAYYYY!)

Here is the squid Matt MADE, which by sheer coincidence happens to be a perfect companion for Ugly. I have named him Squgly. (OK, this isn’t technically a picture of Matt, but Squgly and Ugly are also way more photogenic than Alec and me, so why not.)

Unfortunately, I didn’t take any photos during karaoke this time because it was very civilised. But you may enjoy this one instead from last year’s birthday karaoke chaos. (Photo visible only to my Flickr friends i.e. anyone who knows me in real life and adds me as a Flickr friend, because I don’t want people to recognize me through recognizing my husband. Though it is true that in the photo, Alec pretty much looks like Matt’s husband.)

Haw Par Villa: Hallucinations, Hell And The Hokey Pokey

Spread the word – Haw Par Villa is the best trip you can have in Singapore without risking a criminal record.

[For non-Singaporean readers: Haw Par Villa is a statue park in the west of Singapore, built in the 1930s by two tycoon brothers who made their fortunes in Chinese medicinal ointment, and it’s full of garish life-size statues commissioned by the brothers to portray stories from Chinese mythology and traditional Chinese values.]

Haw Par Villa’s been terminally uncool ever since that spectacularly failed themeparkesque revamp in the late 80s, but no one seems to have noticed that they’ve since reversed many of the ill-advised changes that led to its downfall. It’s free to get in again these days (apart from the $5 parking charge and the $1 entry fee to Hell), and they’ve removed all those ridiculously kitsch additions like the rides and shows. So now, just the ridiculously kitsch original statues are left.

I took first Alec and recently Russ to it, and I think I wouldn’t be overstating things to say they both left a little changed by the experience. I don’t usually like to post too many photos in an entry, but my words really can’t do justice to the lurid reality of Haw Par Villa on their own, so forgive me if you’re on a slow connection and this entry takes a while to load. As usual, click on the photos for larger versions, and oh, be warned: CONTAINS WEIRD STATUE NUDITY.
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Fantastic Damage

So I’m broke, exhausted, and have exams in less than twenty days which I haven’t started studying for yet, but at least I had a good weekend. Reasons why:

  • Resfest (more detailed review intended in future post), and the pleasing coincidence of attending it with the only two people I know in the world (Benny on Saturday, Jeremy on Sunday) who I can uninhibitedly discuss music with. (James, from what Alec’s been telling me, by the next time we meet I hope you’ll be the third!)

  • Showing Benny bits of Singapore I actually like. We had dinner at Satay Club under the flyover, and later walked all the way along the river from the Asian Civilizations Museum to Cocco Latte. Cocco Latte didn’t disappoint either, from the surprisingly good mashups (from all my Internet searching it’s rare enough that I even hear one mashup I rate highly, but they played quite a number) on the ground floor to the great mix of hip-hop upstairs. Benny had already been saying “Have I mentioned I really love this place?” at regular ten-minute intervals downstairs, but once we went upstairs and the DJ was playing stuff Benny didn’t know I think that sealed matters as far as respect was concerned. (Random fear, though: the place is getting more and more popular, which makes me worry that it will eventually fall prey to my two pet peeves about Phuture – the ridiculous overcrowding, and too many gropers.)

  • Feeling virtuous for making it to 11.15 AM mass, despite only having three and a half hours of sleep (and even less than that the night before). Of course, I also felt as if I was about to keel over and die, but that suited today’s theme of making painful sacrifices for one’s faith remarkably well.

  • Coming back from mass bleary-eyed, and finding a beautiful bouquet of flowers waiting. Today marks three years with Alec.

flyover by night
The view from the Satay Club at dusk.