Thu, 19 Dec: Grandpa has finally agreed to take the car to the mechanic to fix the jammed wiper system today... I'm carless. And so the story goes... I had to stay on in Agilent until about 7pm, waiting for Jase... Anyhow, time was definitely not wasted because I was only given some last minute do-or-die task to complete at about 5pm. When Jase came by, we decided to have dinner at Dave's Deli... after I verbally slaughtered him for being a total moron for spilling the beans on something that he shouldn't have let on that he knew about. Yeah... Jase just laughed it off (what's new?)

1. The inevitable: Halfway through dinner, Grandpa called from the neighbour's house to tell me that he's locked out. Erm... ok... apparently he hasn't yet gone to make a new copy for the door that his current 1 or 2-month old faulty copy fails to open... I told him mum should be back by 8pm. By 8++ pm, my dad called me to scold me for not going home to open the door for my grandpa... "Excuse me, I'm CARLESS and my ride for dinner and LOTR won't be here until his shift is over..." was my story of the moment.

2. False alarm ala Amazing Race: After dinner, Jase and I picked up the movie tickets and we had actually wanted to do some shopping around... but seeing we had time (and getting a 2nd call from an irate dad 20-30 mins from the first call), I told Jase I better go back to check - just in case my mum still hasn't gone home. I had earlier tried to call her once or twice but no answer. Jase being helpful as always - gave me a ride home...

   Upon arriving in front of my house, I saw that my mum was already home. I decided that we needn't stop but head back to BJC... Jase said this unnecessary ride was like getting a false alarm or wrong interpretation of a clue in Amazing Race. Now, to make my story to my dad complete... I called mum's h/p to ask if she's home and we made jokes about grandpa's key situation. Our conclusion: This episode was inevitable to speed up the need for him to finally go make a working copy of THE KEY.

3. "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers": Ho, ho!! Before leaving the office, I found out that my bro would be watching the 10++ pm show in Mid Valley. Meanwhile, I watched the 9:45pm in BJC's MegaPav.

   The opening scene of Gandalf vs a Balrog is a magnificent piece of work. The whole show was packed with action - enhanced with plenty of sound and visual effects wizardry. I do however have to agree with a movie review published in The Star - the storyline is rather choppy although it runs more closely to the book. Last but not least, I was a bit flabbergasted to find that a part of Book Two was not portrayed in LOTR: TTT. Looks like it's being pushed to the 3rd movie.

   I feel that Gollum's part was very well portrayed and rather comical at certain points. Merry & Pippin were more serious this time round... leaving Gimli to provide most of the comic moments. Legolas had a pretty unbelievable horse mounting scene... and a superb surf down the stairs while shooting arrows at intruding Orcs. The Elven armor is impressing and very shiny... although the design does remind me of Marvel's comic book superhero costumes. Theoden's transformation was really smooth... Eowyn gets a nice swordplay scene. Samwise does a good job keeping Frodo from wearing the One Ring... and Daniel Khoo mentioned that Gandalf kinda reminds him of Moses. The Ents were rather a comical sight... I believe some of them should have been made stockier - they all looked a bit too gangly. Overall... it was an enjoyable movie if we don't know the book and don't care much about logic.

Fri, 20 Dec: A night out - farewell outing for Pinky cum welcome home for Shakila. Shakila just came back for a term break from UK yesterday morning while Pinky will be returning to Medan on the coming Monday. The 3 of us went to the Sup Kambing place for dinner. Later on, Sha had the sudden urge for an Ice Blended... so we headed over to Gurney's Coffee Bean. It was nearly 12 when Ethan, Chris & Boon Guan finally came to join us. We had so much to say to each other that we didn't leave until 2am. During that time, Sha also pointed out and confirmed a certain observation that I have been noticing about a certain 2 persons... *sigh* The end of this story is going to be bittersweet indeed!

Sat, 21 Dec: The night before, I told dad I'd leave the house at about 6:15-6:30 pm to pick up Jocelyn, Wan Yee & Vijaya before dropping him off at uncle KS's place. When we left the house at 6:15pm today, he ranted that it was late. I told him not to complain coz yesterday he said 6:30 could be too early... and that he's panicking because some of his friends who were also going to the Xaverian's reunion had started calling him, as early as 5:45pm.

Meanwhile at 6pm, Joce called to say that she just got home from a trip to the beach and had the nerve to ask if I can pick her up later. I wasn't in a mood to be nice. I frankly told her "Be ready by 6:15pm or else!" She knows that she's not the only person I'm picking up... and she knows I have to drop my dad off by a certain time. Knowing about the time constraint that I have, she should have the common sense to be home earlier to get ready for our Annual Reunion Dinner with our CGL schoolmates from the class of 1997. I'm sorry but I won't be nice about something so stupidly unthinking and selfish on her part.

After picking up everyone along the way, dad suddenly decides it'd be better for me to drop him off directly to SXI instead of uncle KS's place. He also abandoned the kuih talam he intended to pass to Aunty May. Dang! I don't see why he can't take it with him. Nevermind that... I'd just leave it in the car while I have my own reunion dinner.

Dinner was at Mario's - way up in Batu Ferringhi. The food was nice although it's a bit pricey. I think I still like the food in Dave's of Gurney Plaza better. Anyhow, the other people who was there were Chui Ying, Soo Foong, Hui Chin, Guat May, Deborah, Jamie, Li Siah, Sze Lin, and Pei Ling. Lots of photos were taken... and the waiters and captain of the restaurant thought we were still in school. We told them we were already working and a few of us were graduating soon. Jamie's immediate comment was, "I feel so flattered! *giggles*"

With dinner done, some went off for a mamak session while some others decided to go hang out at the Mansion @ 32. On the other hand, Vijaya had to go home while I wanted to meet up with Kalamari for the purpose of checking out his family's new home. So, I dropped Vijaya home... before heading back up to Batu Ferringhi to meet up with Kalamari, Kotak & Dan. The house is really nice... and I gave them the kuih talam since they'd appreciate it. Anyhow... it was the authentic stuff made with real pandan juice and not just green colouring. I think it was about 2++am when I left for home... whoa... 2 super late nights in a row.