Baldrick!!!

Ok ok...finally after a month hiatus, I am back with the review of our favourite BALDRICK. Played by Tony Robinson (who recently did the documentary on Da Vinci Code) throughout the 4 series, he was the rock and humour bone for most of the Blackadder series. Just as Blackadder exists in many incarnations throughout the ages, so does Baldrick; wherever there is a Blackadder there is a Baldrick serving him. Initially Baldrick was the smart one and Blackadder the idiot, but as Blackadder's social status has fallen so has Baldrick's intelligence, while Blackadder's rises with each series. Intelligent or not, Baldrick is always one for inventing "cunning plans", which are generally ridiculed by Blackadder, who nevertheless ends up using them. Other traits shared by all Baldricks (except possibly the first one) are sheer disgustingness and an obsession with turnips!

In the first season, Baldrick was the helpful sidekick for Blackadder, in fact even smarter than Percy Percy. It was Baldrick who came up with the title Blackadder instead of the Black Vegetable initially proposed by Rowan Atkinson. In the second season, Baldrick was the villageidiot who had to beg Blackadder in order to retain his job. His fetish for turnips was also revealed when he declared his dream was to buy a big fat turnip.

In the 3rd season, Baldrick contested for a seat in the House of Parliament in order to allow the King to control the Parliament. He also became more and more disgusting and paid 400,000 pounds for a giant turnip. In season 4, Baldrick was the regimental cook for Blackadder's company and was infamous for his crap food and interesting hobbies such as poetry. More cunning plans pls

I quote one of Baldrick's poem.

"Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom
Boom, Boom, Boom
Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom,
Boom, Boom, Boom"

Need I say more :-)

Flu, Conferences and Fruits?

Been ill for the past few days but am slowly recovering. Unfortunately did not had the chance to take MC as I had to attend a conference last week. The conference was on electronic waste and how each companies was dealing with their waste and it ended with a lovely tour to one of the recycling plant. Had a chance to hold 2-3 kg of gold ingot in my hand. Fancy holding a BMW 7 Series in my hand. :-)

Got arrowed for another conference these 2 days. Quite interesting as well but work is piling up in office as well.

As promised here are some pictures from our year end function, comments welcome pls

Preparing for the Fruit Nite
My ColleaguesThe VIPsThe King and Queen of Fruits

For more pictures do go to http://cheewing.multiply.com/photos/album/11

Enjoy!

Another Interesting Week

Apologies to my loyal fans (at last count should be only 3) for not blogging for the past week.

Well this week has been one of the more interesting week for me. Started with quite a serious meeting and the press release of my portfolio's hard work over the past 1.5 years. It's been hard work for my seniors but I think the satisfaction of completing the project is unbeatable. I would hope to be able to see through one of the projects soon hopefully in the upcoming year.

Another interesting eating place my boss recommended over this past week was the VIP hotel. A pleasant small hotel at Balmoral Road, they served excellent set lunch for a very affordable $5.90+++. Tried their chicken gordon bleu and also their chicken chop, very decent and they have a rolling set menu over a 4 week period. On a separate note, went with a colleague to Serangoon Gardens and she had a sudden craving for high class food. We went in F.R.I.E.N.D.S and the setting was very nice. The food was great and topping it up with great service as well (Many thanks to Fion for the excellent dinner).

The year end is coming to an end and we had our company's year end function....pictures to be attached sometime next week!

And to round the week off, my very best friend got engaged. XY really happy for you. Your angels will always been with you!

More rubbish from me soon :-)

Defeat for Blair

Well, well, how could someone with a majority of 66 in Parliament actually ended losing a vote on a bill by 31? That is the question that everyone had been asking since Tony Blair's bill on right of detention of 90 days got thrown out the House of Commons. His intention to extend the right for police to detain anyone suspected of terrorism from the existing 14 days to 90 days was good but somehow the selling did not went well. His authoritative Home Secretary Charles Clarke have been made a scapegoat for this incident and it is surprising that he is still in the job.

Actually the defeat has been brewing for quite some time. The bill on university reforms were nearly thrown out as well but he manage to squeak past. With his decrease in majority after the General Election in May, it was a wrong time to launched this reformed terror bill. Public sentiments were high after the July 7 bombing and I am sure if the MPs cancelled their summer holidays to talk about this reforms, it would have been passed.

So what this spell for Mr Blair? Already his favourite lackey David Blunkett had resigned the previous week (his second resignation in less than a year) due to his lack of revelations in him holding shares in a public company while he was still an MP. The week could not seem to get worse. The only fortunate bit apart his misfortunes is that the Conservatives are busy finding a new leader. If the new pretender David Cameron can be crowned before Christmas, I am sure he will hammer Blair. A cabinet re-shuffle seems iminent with the Home Secretary looking the most vulnerable. David Blunkett's former portfolio of pensions and work affairs have seen their 4th Secretary of State in less than a year, a portfolio which had gotten more and more profile due to the ageing population.

So to sum up, British politics seems to only getting more and more interesting!

Yoga!

Today was the first time I tried yoga. Was always totally inflexible in school (read sit n reach) and was actually very hesistant of trying things such as yoga and pilates. Our friendly HR colleague circulated an email trying to encourage everyone to sign up for yoga (considering that yoga is our boss's favourite interest). Her parting shot in her email was that the yoga teacher was "a looker". So I braved up all my courage to try it out.

Frankly speaking it was not too bad. According to colleagues, the instructor is good and very informative. In fact she spent nearly 1.5 hours with us even though her session was only supposed to be 1 hour. Looking forward to the next session next week.

For info, I attached photo of the teacher and her website is www.yoga-sutra.net

Finally NFL!

Today is Deepavali and finally after nearly 10 months, I got a chance to watch a NFL game today. Come to think of it, the only 2 games I have watched this year was the Rose Bowl (an agonising loss by Michigan to Texas 38-37) and the Super Bowl (Patriots triumping over the Eagles). Today's game was not that exciting pitting last year's best regular season team the Pittsburgh Steelers against the Baltimore Ravens.

The game was evenly matched even though the Ravens had very little of the possession. Some sublime passing by Steeler's star quarterback Ben Roethelisburger (hope I got it right) gave Pittsburgh a close win 20-19. In fact I am already cursing that I can't watch next week game between the undefeated Colts and the Patriots. Should be quite a sizzler if the Patriots can show their Super Bowl form.

I was quite surprised that ESPN actually make an effort to explain the basic rules during commercial times. Actually American Football rules are rather complicated especially with the different kinds of fouls but the aim is really simple. You have 4 chances to move the ball by 10 yards. If you succeed, you will get another 4 chances. If you fail, the ball goes to the opposing team. A touchdown is worth 6 points and a field goal is 3 points. For more detailed rules, refer to the wikipedia website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_football

Go Patriots for next week....rather disappointed by Michigan's performance thus far :-(