Fri, 17 Jan: When Sleep Won the Battle... I had intended to join Ashwin, Malcolm, Pei-Ti, Julian (and Angelia?) for a little gathering at the beach. Ash & Mal said they were taking a telescope (for star-gazing), a guitar and some finger-food there. And then of course I was tired. I was also not too keen to battle the traffic for some 45 mins (courtesy of bottlenecks caused by Thaipusam celebrations); hang out with them for maybe 30 mins; and take another 45 mins to go home and sleep... I had to go to work on Sat morning.

Sat, 18 Jan: Alone in the office... This morning, I went into Agilent to clear up some of my backlogged reports instead of going into MIM. I'm happy!! In between compiling reports - I did some major downloading... including some from The Official LOTR Website. p/s: Only on Sat & Sun... A radio channel gets aired over the factory-wide PA System. Bliss!!

Packed like sardines!! I took mum to Sunshine Farlim knowing that most roads to town would be hell to cross. Parking was hard to find... err... danger bells rang... Then getting into the hypermart - Holy Cananoli!!! There was a huge swarm in there. Mum was deterred. I don't fancy it either but I didn't want to waste the trip. I dragged her in, grabbed a basket, and asked her to grab one too. Armed with a shopping list - our shopping mission was super-focussed. The faster we are done - the sooner we get out of this madness. I got home in time to help unpack the groceries before rushing out to for the 5:20pm show of "Hero" in BJC.

An appointment with "HERO". Dan Khoo & Malcolm took turns to call me while I was on the way, while I was stuck in the parking queue, and when I was parking... we got into the theatre a few minutes late. ;P Anyhow... about "Hero" - it's a highly artistic classical Chinese martial arts action movie. The storyline focuses on some fighters/assassins who work together towards uniting a nation. The brilliant effect of color-coding by Zhang Yi Mou (director), to unfold the story as each angle is told, is not mere eye-candy... it also lends character & moods to the story.

Dinner at home...? After the movie, Malcolm had to go off for a dinner and Dan had other plans. "Oh well... to home I go then..." - As I got into my car, I saw Sze Lin & Kok Keong walking right in front of my car. They saw me too!! And so the story goes, we end up having dinner together at Kenny Roger's before we walked around the place to lepak while Sze Lin managed to find her glass item (bottle or drinking glass). She's into doing those glass art thinghys... quite easily found sold at stationery corners nowadays.

Sun, 19 Jan: Prepared a few ingredients for my planned baking session in the late morning. Went to do more CNY stocking with my parents in the afternoon. Started "Cookie Baking Project: Round 1" after an early dinner.

Mon, 20 Jan: Happy Birthday, Pei Ling! I nearly forgot to wish her until the day was nearly over... *aiks!* Anyway... throughout the late morning until night time - I was occupied with "Cookie Baking Project: Round 2 and Round 3"... and I'm not quite done yet... I still have round 4, 5, 6... and I think 7 too. Managed to catch ER & Ally McBeal. Truly? Ally McBeal is actually picking up on entertainment value... too bad it is the last season.