GOODBYE SAN FRANCISCO

That was the fastest two weeks of my life! Two days in San Fran for work, 5 days in Vancouver for Sean & Lea's Wedding, back to San Francisco for 5 more days of work and now back to Singapore. I feel well used and burnt out, I met so many great people, saw so many cool things and got to see my friends, family and puppies, it was an action packed trip. Michelle still has another week in Vancouver before returning to Singapore but I will be waiting for her with open arms.

Thanks for Lucasarts for making this work trip so worth while!

Thanks to Sean & Lea for having such a memorable wedding!

Thanks to our families and friends for giving us so much to miss back home!

It's been fun North America, see you in a few months!

A smattering of out pics from this trip can be found HERE!

SEAN & LEA

This past weekend saw the union of two of our favorite people... SEAN & LEA.

One of the major reasons for us coming back to this side of the world was for the wedding and what a fantastic whirlwind it was. On Wednesday, we had the rehearsal dinner (rehearsal at the venue, then dinner at Sean's dads place), thursday night was the Stag & Stagette (boys out golfing and drinking & girls our for dinner and dancing) and both parties ended up singing karaoke together into the wee hours of the morning. Finally, Saturday night was the main event!

It was a magical day at the Capilano Golf & Country Club, the ceremony was sweet, including self-written vows that brought tears to everyones eyes. SEAN & LEA had a kick ass photographer named Sherri Koop (she was the photographer for our wedding as well) who I know took some exceptional shots which we all can't wait to see. Dinner was delicious, the hosts Jeff & Kevin were hilarious, the speeches (including my Best Man epic) were a success and the night continued on with old friends, laughter and dancing. Through it all, you could see that Sean and Lea were on cloud nine as the smiles never left their faces, this was their day and it went off without a hitch. We ended the night with 2am pizzas at the Ranch with the last few survivors. 

It was a fantastic day to be sure and our love goes out to SEAN & LEA, congratulations once again, we love you!

Here are our PICS from all the days leading up to and including wedding day... enjoy!

To see our other SEAN & LEA pics, click HERE!!!

BACK IN NORTH AMERICA

So I am in San Francisco and it's cold. Sure it's sunny California but really it's windy, it's cold and it's kinda foggy. I was walking around yesterday with a jacket on and I could see my breath in the the air, seriously it was that cool... in July. I have two days of Work here at the mothership before I head to Vancouver for Sean & Lea's wedding. I will spend a whirlwind five days there before heading back here for another week of work. It's a bit crazy but not as crazy as my 11 minutes in Tokyo.

You see, I flew Singapore - Tokyo - San Francisco and my layover in Tokyo was supposed to be 50 minutes long, tight but doable. Well due to strong headwinds and a turbulent flight (love that) we arrived late in Tokyo, way late, like I had 15 minutes to get to my next flight. I told the stewardess my predicament and she just smiled and nodded and said that everything would be okay... hmm. Anyway, when we arrived in Tokyo, I was one of the first to stumble off the plane and there was a stewardess waiting for three of us who were on our way to SF. She tagged our carry-on and we ran (yes I ran) through security, down five floors, along a long ass hallway, up three floors and then to the gate. We got onto the plane, they closed the door and a minute later the plane was taxiing onto the runway. I made it on time, the plane took off on time and miraculously, when we arrived in San Francisco on time, my bag arrived as well... wow. You hear horror stories about quick turnarounds and missing luggage, luckily I didn't become another statistic, you can cross the globe and arrive safe and sound with your bag intact!

Well, now that I am back I can look at these cities in a different light. Despite the beauty of SF it is dirty, there's garbage everywhere, beggers and rummies on every corner and the cabs are a disaster area, pricey and unclean, the booze is cheap, the mexican food is fantastic and the portions are gigantic... much different than Singapore. Not better, not worse, just different. I wonder if I am going to see Vancouver in a different light as well but really with Michelle, all my friends, family and my two puppies there, the city could be a flaming pile of shit and I would still love it there. I'll let you know. 

Anyway, other than the wedding, I am in San Fran for a week and half of work, meeting all the people I've only had early morning phone calls and the odd video conference with, it's cool. It's also very busy, I kinda wonder if seven working days is going to be enough but really, it's better than a kick in the face. 

More to come

DESPICABLE ME

Okay, this looks like it could be fun, then again, it's only a teaser trailer...

STORMS

One thing about Singapore that still amazes me are the surprise TROPICAL STORMS. It can be sunny as all hell and within two minutes, clouds arrive, a minute after that, the wind picks up and then in a matter of moments a torrential downpour of rain hits and it hits hard. People are running for any type of cover, covered bus stops become packed and every taxi in the city is suddenly busy. But then like it never even started, within minutes, the rain has stopped, the clouds disappear and voila, you have sun again. This usually happens 3-4 times a week. 

I bring up Storms because the other day was the worst. I usually leave the house at 7am for work and by that time it's light outside, today it wasn't because it was still dark from all the black clouds that were hanging around. Once I walked out of the building I was met by an extremely strong wind that was knocking around the trees about and for the first time in my entire Singapore adventure, I was cold. Cold! Me! The guy who has worn full length pants only three times in two months! 

I thought to myself "oh boy, this one is gonna be a doozy" and sure enough it was! I was going to walk to the MRT but I was smart enough to hail the first cab I saw because as soon as I got in, the rain fell and it fell hard! The torrential downpour engulfed the city, cars suddenly forgot how to drive and everything slowed down to a crawl as people dealt with the flood of rain. It rained the entire 25 minute cab ride to work and only subsided once I arrived, the black clouds stuck around for a while longer but then slowly but surely, the sun was back within the hour.

What would have made this storm extra cool is if it was accompanied by the usual hardcore thunder and lightning we get out here, alas poor Yorick, it wasn't meant to be. At least I snapped the above iPhone pic before the rain came.

Regardless, the storms in Singapore are pretty cool.

LITTLE DIFFERENCES & FACTS

Now that I have been here for two months I can honestly say that Singapore is a cool town BUT there are many little differences that can sometimes drive you around the bend.

FOOD MODIFICATIONS - You want salad instead of fries? You want dressing on the side? You want extra cheese? You want no nuts? It isn't going to happen in Singapore. If you try to modify your meal you will be met with blank, confused stares a little bit of sputtering and a statement like "but the menu says this, this is what the dish is". You have to order the meal as is or you are out of luck! Now obviously there is the odd restaurant or eatery that will allow you to modify but it's usually the little places that let you, most of the big or expensive places look at you like you must have lobsters crawling out of your ears to suggest a change to their glorious menu. Face it jacky boy, you gotta eat what it says on the menu.

BANKS - Unlike the rest of the modern world, if you belong to bank A, then you can only use Bank A's ATM's, no other bank will allow you to use their machines unless you are a member of their group, it's odd. I can use my Canadian Bank Card in virtually any machine here and I can use my Singapore Bank Card in virtually any machine in Canada but I can only use my Singapore Bank Card at the ATM for my bank. They don't like you to hang out with the other bank machines, they're evil, stick with us, we'll make you feel good even if you can't find one of our bank machines anywhere and are stuck with no cash.

SCHEMES - They are not called plans, they are not called deals, they are called schemes. Any every restaurant and store in Singapore has one. Save 10% if you are a member of this bank. Save 5% if you have a SingTel cell phone on you, buy 2 or more and get the 3rd one at 50% off, call now then do a backflip and swallow a Durian whole and you get it for free. It's weird, everyone has a scheme or two and business is dictated by how good the scheme is, stores with better schemes are always busier than stores with okay schemes. The ones that throw me off are the Bank Credit Card schemes, Save 10% if you have a Citybank MC! Well I have a DBS MC, sorry no good. Well I have a Citybank Visa, sorry no good. I can still pay with these cards but because I don't have the right combo, I can't take advantage of the scheme and save 10%. Whatever.

MEMBERSHIPS - Every store or restaurant has a membership. Sign up and get a free sticker and five percent off all your meals, stuff like that. Some memberships like at the apple store are cool, sign up for $60 and get unlimited free tech support for life. While other memberships like at the apple store are not so cool, get a free membership if you buy an iPod, it doesn't matter if you buy more than an ipod or even a laptop, you only get it free if you buy an iPod (see point #1 - no modifications). 

HAPPY HOUR - I've said it before and I'll say it again, booze is expensive in Singapore but luckily a lot of places have "happy hours" but they don't just last an hour, no no, these things last all afternoon. 3pm to 9pm 1-for-1 drinks (1 for 1 means two-for-one back home). 5pm to 10pm... 12noon to 8pm... the list goes on and on. A cocktail may cost you $13 but at happy hour, 2 for $13 is a lot easier to swallow.

A couple other things to note:

• If you are handing over money, use both hands, don't just hand it over with one, it's disrespectful

• Singapore is among the 20 smallest countries in the world, with a total land area of only 682.7 square kilometres. The USA is about 15,000 times bigger. 

• Don't stick chop sticks straight up in you meal, it means someone has died, also don't use your chopstick as a knife, it's low class

• The Bukit Timah Nature Reserve in Singapore contains more species of trees than the entire North American continent. 

• If you see a ++ sign after a price it means plus tax and plus tip, no ++ means it's all included in the price

• The Singapore Sling was first served in 1915 at the Long Bar of the Raffles Hotel. The ingredients are Gin, Cointreau, Cherry Brandy, Dom Benedictine, Pineapple Juice, Grenadine, Angoustura bitters and limes. 

• No Durians on the MRT (thank the maker!)

• The five stars on Singapore's flag stand for Singapore's ideals of democracy, peace, progress, justice and equality.

ROCK BAND SUPERSTAR

I just had to post this pic as it makes me laugh. We had a "going away party" for one of our guys who is moving to the US and one of the events at the party was a ROCK BAND COMPETITION which I ofcourse had to enter and it was good times. Now still being fairly new to the company (today is actually my 2 month anniversary of being in Singapore), I decided to give it my all.

This is me, singing Billy Idol's "White Wedding"

I started slow but as I rolled, the laughs got bigger and ghosts of "43 LBS. OF WASTED SPACE", my old improv group, kicked in so I went whole hog. The shades went on, the collar flipped up and I sang till I was red in the face. I even broke out some moves and headlocked the drummer for the final few notes. Like I said, good times!

SUMMER PARTY

A lot of companies have summer parties and a lot of those summer parties are good parties but I think I can honestly say that I have been to the best company summer party I have ever been to. Why? Cause this year, we had our summer party at CAFE DEL MAR on Sentosa Island, this chump from Vancouver just had his first tropical company summer party and it was a blast.

It wasn't the food (which was tasty and abundant), it wasn't the booze (free flowing until late), it wasn't the music (three guys who work at the company spinning all night), it wasn't the pool (filled with dunked co-workers) and it wasn't the turnout (tons of people from the company)... it was everything.

Michelle and I were standing there at one point, sipping on some bevvies while great music filled the air, we looked around to see tons of people smiling & laughing and then walked to the beach to see the best looking sunset we've seen in Singapore so far. We looked at each other and smiled, this was a great company party.

Some things in Singapore take some getting used to, nights like this don't. It was a spectacular evening filled with laughs, views and lots of tomfoolery. Here are the pics I have so FAR but I will add more soon!

GIO'S MOVIE ROUND-UP: JUNE '09

Only saw four movies this month, one a week though, better than a punch in the soul...

MONSTERS VS. ALIENS IN 3-D
Funny, definitely a cartoon for adults but nowhere near the high quality of a Pixar production. If Pixar is the top fraternity in School, Dreamworks is the one with the best parties. MONSTERS is a fun movie, with great character moments and a lot of laughs, it's just not as high "quality" as a Pixar flick in that I mean the overall Art Design, the animation and the modeling. I still like it but I never "look forward" to a Dreamworks Animated Picture, I do look forward to a Pixar Picture... unless it's CARS, yeesh, not even being a "Pixar" flick can save that train wreck. Anyway, MONSTERS VS. ALIENS is good fun.
GIO'S OPINION: THUMBS UP

DRAG ME TO HELL
Awesome... Alison Lohemann is the new Bruce Campbell, minus the chin and the snappy one-liners but other than that, it's a return to form for Sam Raimi and a hell of a good time. It's scary, it's funny, it's cheesy, it's gory, it's campy and it's all wrapped up in this over-the-top yet simple story that has you entertained from beginning to end. A creepy old gypsy lays a curse on a young woman and she has three days to lift it before she is literally "dragged to hell"... c'mon, it doesn't get better than this (okay maybe if it had zombies, or starred Bruce Campbell but still). This is Raimi at his best, forget Spider-men, big budgets and cutting edge effects, he can still deliver top grade entertainment for a fraction of the cost. Whomever said you can't go home again, was wrong.
GIO'S OPINION: THUMBS UP

GHOSTS OF GIRLFRIENDS PAST
Obviously this was Michelle's choice as she is a big Matthew McConoughey fan but I have to admit, I laughed throughout it. Now don't get me wrong, this movie is full of little issues and it's a blatant rip off of A CHRISTMAS CAROL but it's cute, it's clever and there is some actual chemistry between McConaughey and co-star Jennifer Garner which you don't often see in rom-coms. Michael Douglas steals the show though, great bit part!
GIO'S OPINION: THUMBS UP

TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN
Okay, Michael Bay has to stop. Each one of his films has less and less story and more and more mindless rigmarole and this latest TRANSFORMERS flick has gone too far, what a mess. Sure there is lots of cool action but no matter how cool it looks, the sheer amount of stupid jokes, stereotypical characters, useless humans, look-a-like robots, paper thin story, quick edits, and seizure level shakycam take away from all that cool action. All the things that were wrong with the first TRANSFORMERS film weren't corrected, they were just amplified here and that's a shame, it may hurt the franchise more than help it. Don't let the box office take fool you, this is an inferior film compared to the original.
GIO'S OPINION: THUMBS DOWN

HAPPY CANADA DAY!

Sorry we couldn't be there in person to celebrate with you Canada, just know that tonight we will be drinking beer in your honor! Now... if only we could find Poutine in Singapore, that would be awesome!