Updated on: 22-March-2009 @ 5.31 PM

Yesterday was my 26th birthday and this year though before, I feel that I'm getting old yet I'm still single at the age of 26 and I haven't got a job which I really enjoy doing, but this year, I spent a whole 3 days celebrating my birthday with different group of friends. And today, I got a surprise celebration from my colleagues. They got me a strawberry ice-cream cake, a huge bday card and ang pow. So happy that at least they celebrated my birthday and gave me a surprise.
On Friday, I met up with Ivan, Andrew and his gf, Erica for dinner at Bugis Ministry of Food. Since 3 March was Andrew's bday too, we celebrated together. After dinner, Ivan insist he get us a bday cake so we went Breadtalk and settled for a small Chantilly (strawberries vanilla cake). We had wanted to go over to Top One KTV at Bugis Street and have our cake cut during KTV session. However, we did not make a reservation thus it is full till 12.30am so we decided to go to Andrew's condo and cut the cake by the poolside at Bukit Panjang. We stayed there till about 11+ then we left and Ivan drove me home.
On Saturday, I met up with Mingli and we went to catch Marley & Me at Cineleisure. Before that, I went to M1 at Paragon to buy a phone. I got my queue number and then we went to Bakerz Inn to get a drink and wait for my queue number. I got the Sony Ericsson G705 phone and I must start to get used to it. I used my M1 $100 voucher and paid the remaining to top up for the amount and signed a 2-year contract. I got everything settled within 10 mins. First time I go to M1 outlet and managed to settle everything including queueing takes only at most 15-20 mins. But the customer service attendant wasn't smiling at all. Then Mingli treat me to a nice dinner at Breeks and we went walking around.
On Sunday, it was an outing with my church pals. I went to church as usual dressed in a nice black dress with black stockings. My sis appeared with a bouquet of flowers for me and almost everyone who saw the flowers can guessed that it was my birthday that day. She said it was the remaining flowers left from arranging the altar flowers so might as well do one for me using the leftovers.


Then Kailin, Rachel, Jo, Mabel and Vince presented me their gift for me in church. Kailin, Rachel and myself walked over to Holland Village from church first and settled down at Starbucks. Then we chilled ourselves with iced blended drinks. Vince came to joined us and I met my boss and her husband in Starbucks too. So coincidence to met my boss at Holland V on a Sunday, they were staying at Tanjong Rhu though. She wished me Happy Birthday and when it was almost 1pm, we walked over to Settlers Cafe just to find the place closed due to en-bloc. So we decided to go for NYDC as we will spend some time there and they had desserts. So the four of us went there and waited for Mabel and Jo.










We took pictures there and for desserts, they ordered for me a Strawberry Fling Mudpie with candle on it and sang Happy Birthday song to me.





Then I opened my present they bought for me and it was a nice Sovil Titus watch. They got taste it really suit me well. Design's what I'll wear and that is my first leather strap kind of watch so I like it. Can be semi-formal. Thanks guys! We had wanted to leave then we realised it has started to rain heavily. In the end, we sat there for almost 5 hrs now and good thing they did not chase us out. My dad came to pick me up and we went for dinner at Ichiban Tei at Riverside with my family. Will upload those photos once I get from Vince.

Labels: birthday, celebrations, family, friends

Marley & Me

Synopsis:
As the snow falls on their wedding night, newlyweds John and Jenny Grogan (OWEN WILSON and JENNIFER ANISTON) decide to leave behind the harsh winters of Michigan and head south to begin their new lives in West Palm Beach, Florida. They obtain jobs as journalists at competing local newspapers, buy their first home, and begin to make their way through the challenges of a new marriage, new careers and, possibly, the life-changing decision to start a family. Unsure of his preparedness for raising children, John confesses his fears to his friend and fellow journalist Sebastian, who comes up with the perfect solution: John should get Jenny a puppy. "There's nothing to it," says Sebastian. "You walk 'em. You feed 'em, you let 'em out now and then." Then came Marley. MARYLEY AND ME is a heartwarming and unforgettable story of live, love, family and the world's best - and worst - dog.

Reviews:
I read finished the book before I went to watch the movie. Initially, after seeing the trailers of Marley & Me, I had thought that it is a comedy movie where it won't be showing the last ending of the book. Cause I had thought that will be so heart-wrenching to watch such a scene for a comedy movie like this. But after watching it, the funny parts are actually at the parts where Marley was the laughing point of the whole movie.

The movie recounts John's true-life memoir from the day he and his wife Jenny Grogan got married, the ups and downs of bringing up a family with their dog Marley and to the inevitable tear-jerking ending. Owen Wilson narrates certain parts of the story as if taken from the book itself to create a fast forward approach. It served to be nicely compact, understandable and witty. It is plain to see why this book is so successful as it bears strong emotional values, important life lessons, self-motivation and true-life moments that everyone can relate to.

Acting wise, Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston played well as a happily married couple. Wilson performed great as patient and loving family man, while Aniston outperformed herself as a successful feature writer who finally breaks out of control after the birth of their second child. No one could think of another perfect couple to play the down to earth role of Josh and Jenny Grogan. Claimed to be the "World's Worst Dog", Marley was portrayed exactly that and did justice to the extreme title by chewing and eating almost anything and everything in sight, causing destruction to everywhere he goes. This heart-wrenching story about a family's life together with their dog is nothing new, but nonetheless it still serves as a wonderful family film to watch. I will say the plot of the movie followed quite closely to the novel storyline overall but there were some parts which they changed it though. But the mischiefs of Marley were closely followed to the novel.

I loved the movie in whole and I cried and teared like the time when Swizzle died on the vet consultation table too. I was so reminded of Swizzle when she was lying on the table just like Marley did and we had to painfully bear the heart to put her to sleep so as to ease her suffering. We also know her time is up and she has given up on living just like Marley. This is a good book and movie cause it really happened in John's life and I believe many others. There were lots of people who I can hear were sniffing their noses too and cleaning their eyes with tissue. People who also had the same experience as me can feel exactly how John gone thru too or people who had dogs but is still living, but able to feel that this is how they'll also go through in future for their dogs too. The last movie I had teared badly at was also 10 Promises To My Dog, but I was watching the DVD that time and the dog also died peacefully at home. And the last movie I watched was Quill, which I also cried badly. That was when Swizzle was still active but was by then old too so my feelings that time was my dog will be like Quill too.

I will recommend everyone to watch this movie especially if you loved dogs. And Jennifer Aniston is so hot here!

Ratings:
Story: 5/5
Acting: 9/10
Direction: 7/10
Visuals: 8/10 (Had great scenery!)
Overall: 9/10

Labels: movie, reviews, synopsis

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