my ajumma notes

Ha, I've found someone who is more of a Christmas Eve party pooper than myself. From today's Straits Times: 'I think I've fallen out of love with shopping' Is mindless consumerism all there is to being a Singaporean? I hope not By Tessa Wong 'TIS not the season to be thrifty, and these past few weekends, I have been joining my fellow Singaporeans in the annual ritual of Christmas shopping on Orchard Road. But while most are savouring the headlong plunge into this festive orgy of consumerism, I have been feeling repulsed by its excesses. Worse, I think I have fallen out of love with our national hobby. I am not sure how it happened. After all, I have always been a steadfast sucker for Orchard Road at Christmas, and not just because of the traditional season for great bargains. Something about its bright lights, rain-slicked streets, and tinselled glamour had always entranced me. I had always found the bustle of the crowd romantic and convivial, even while getting...

Back around Christmas. In the meantime, don't forget to support Team Singapore ! Ain't he cute?

So... I've finished watching Surgeon Bong Dal-hee and I'm glad I decided to watch it. Maybe I shouldn't write off 'serious' shows in future. Warning: Spoilers ahead! One strength of some (and I stress: some ) K drama serials is the characterisation. Even the secondary characters in Surgeon have distinct personalities and aren't just wallpaper or stereotypical sidekicks. Of course, good characterisation must come with good acting and on the whole the actors did bring their characters to life well. There were these two 'Chief Doctors' (seniors of the 1st-year residents) for example. This guy Dr Jang (left) looked like he walked straight out of a Taiwanese serial, ha ha. Most of the time, he doesn't really get all that much to do besides acting grovelly with his Director and asking, 'What?!' whenever something shocking happens. Nevertheless, he is quite distinctly different from the others. This other Chief Doctor (right) is Dr Kim Hyun Bin,...

For all my bemoaning of local entertainment standards, I have to admit that there are talented individuals. Maybe the problem is that our market is too small and so cannot give enough impetus to the blossoming of talents here. I watched an episode of S-Pop Hurray on Channel U in which Lee Wei Song and Lee Si Song were guests. I didn't realise that their prolific songwriting has won them so many awards abroad and that their impressive clientele includes even Jacky Cheung. Well done!! On that particular episode, some songs from old drama serials were also featured and now I'm wondering if I should watch that 25th anniversary thing after all...

Speaking of local drama serials, I happened to watch a bit of this one about doctors (seems like every other time I turn to Channel 8 there's a re-run of some old serial!) and I suddenly remembered that when I watched Rude Women , I thought the lead actress resembled Xiang Yun (who was in the doctor serial). Mi Joo, played by Yoo Ho-jeong

Fancy that, 25 years of local Chinese drama. I sent this article to A, who lives in SF, and she commented that she hadn't heard or thought about names like Friday Background or Chen Hanwei for a long time, ha ha. I believe we can still vote for our favourite local dramas. I won't be voting or watching the 25th anniversary show but I must name my favourite shows here. I didn't watch all the shows that are nominated so I'll just choose my top 3: Coffee Shop Tofu Street Good Morning, Sir ( The Awakening is iconic but not top on my list) Bottom 2: Golden Pillow As You Like It (Goodness, how did they get nominated??) Anyway, X-tongfang and I were recently discussing the slow progress in local drama standards. 25 years already, leh, and still like that... Also read that Prince Yul will be one of the presenters at the Star Awards . Does he speak Mandarin? Or English? (picture from here )