Punch Buggy redux

Singapore is such a small, small place. Just about a week and a half ago, I found a long lost friend through Max, the media planner in the agency that was doing stuff for us. The first time we met, I found his persona strangely familiar, like one of those things you seem to remember from a dream you had the night before. It was only after taking a second glance at his namecard that I realised he shared the same family name as a friend whom I'd long forgotten.

I took a stab in the dark and asked Max if he had a younger brother named Melvin and, true enough, he said yes. Max immediately gave his younger brother a call and there we were, Melvin and I, trying to catch up on what had gone on in the past 12 years since we last met.

In 1993, Melvin and I found each other through the free ad postings in the now defunct BigO magazine. He plays the guitar and was looking for members to form a band; I was just starting to play the drums and was looking for a band to really jam with. So, voila, Punch Buggy was formed.

We had the same kind of musical tastes which were, at that time, mainly made up of jangly stuff like Teenage Fanclub, Weezer, The Posies, Lemonheads and the like. We were also skating buddies who would go everywhere on our skateboards - jamming, skating to his place from Sunset Way (they used to reside at a condo called Bradley Ville or some fancy name like that opposite Clementi Park condo). Somehow after I graduated and Melvin found his niche with another local band (Silverspy which then evolved into Suchness) and we lost contact.

Upon catching up, I realised that we still have more in common than I thought. We both wear skating shoes to work (despite being frowned upon by our bosses), we love buying Bata shoes and (this one takes the cake) both of us relish the sound of this band called Silver Sun because we are of the same accord that our band then would have sounded like this had we continued to master our craft.

Anyways, it turns out Melvin still writes songs and is a bedroom musician now. Not that he wasn't back then; we used to fool around with a 4-track machine which recorded on a cassette. Which in turn is unheard of anymore. He's turned one of the rooms at his (parents') place into a jamming studio so we're getting together this weekend for a little jam session.

Can't wait.

Terminator Salvation

The past few months have been like a fanboy's wet dream come true. It started with Iron Man, then The Incredile Hulk, Hellboy 2 and now the hype with The Dark Knight. Being a fanboy myself, I can't say that I wasn't jumping with gleeful joy at the thought of all these wonderful works of pulp fiction being transposed onto the big screen to be fleshed out in their full glory.

Speaking of Batman, the next movie in line that is making the palms of all fanboys (myself included) sweat is the highly anticipated (aren't they all??) Terminator 4, which coincidentally stars Christian Bale again as John Connor, the much burdened leader of the resistance. I'm really glad that they decided to leave Arnie out of this whole deal! Unlike the Rambo franchise, which rocked big time despite an ageing Sly Stallone (I'm sure they made a deliberate effort NOT to cover up his wrinkles and bulging belly!) the Terminator series isn't all about a T-800 wlaking around in a leather jacket armed to his teeth with firearms and blasting everything in his way, all the while mouthing cheesy one liners.

Check out the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXnELk6pZVk

The battle with Skynet begins...

Last day at work

Today marked the last day of my journey at YHS. Time has zipped by really quickly due to the tons of work that seemed to be always piling up, especially in the last 2 months when I took over the work of another colleague who left, despite my best efforts to get everything sorted out. The phrase ‘so much work but too little time’ seemed to take on a literal meaning for me. It was only logical then that I had slowly begun to doubt my own work efficiency.

It seemed like yesterday that I stepped into the company premises reporting for my first day of work (still recall my VP telling to remove my tie – apparently, to my relief, it wasn’t the culture here for guys to put on ties!). I was all revved up to get going, eager to prove myself. Over the next couple of months, I must say I definitely did. Time and again, there was always something waiting to blow up in my face. But by the grace and mercy of God, things always seemed to work out fine in the end despite me breaking out into a cold sweat at the beginning.

It’s a peculiar feeling when you wake up in the morning knowing that it’s your last day at work. Like people on their deathbed, you know that today would be the last chance for you to right the wrongs that you’ve always wanted to but never had the opportunity. Like these dying folks worrying about leaving out something in their will, I likewise pondered about the things I had to hand over, worrying that I may have omitted some little detail in my handover list that would snowball into something huge.

I (finally) sorted all my documents into proper files, having to hand them over to Desmond (my colleague who’s taking over me). And after so many months, I finally cleared tons of junk that served no purpose other than to clutter my already limited cubicle space (I seem to be removing a lot of clutter in my life lately). My cubicle was finally clear and I was so proud of myself!

Leaving the office at 9.30pm, I was actually quite sad. While this job has given me many sleepless nights, I am going to miss all my colleagues who had grown to become friends over the 10 months I was here. A wise man (can’t remember who) once said ‘The only certain thing in life is change and progress’. I couldn’t have put it better myself.

Adios, amigos…