Friday, December 24, 2004

Christmas Chaos

Woke up today and decided to go watch Phantom of the Opera. It's one of my favourite musicals and I thought, what the heck, let's give the movie a shot, despite it getting like 1.5 stars or something from 8 days (or was is Straits Times? Nvm) Anyway, the movie started with some fake yellowish-old-film type scenes... and went on to show an auction scene in an opera theatre, pretty much like the musical. So, ho-hum... no big deal. But just as I was letting my apathy catch hold of me, the familiar PTO theme started playing. And the movie scene started getting 'colourised'. I tell you... I could feel chills down my spine. It was really quite good. The CGI together with the haunting tune really went along well. To cut a long story short, I did enjoy the movie after all. For those who've heard or seen the musical version of PTO, it's pretty obvious that the singing in the movie version can't match up to it, so don't even bother hating the movie because of it. Taken on it's own merit, PTO: the movie is not a bad musical movie. If you hate musicals, please don't watch this. You'll be bored stiff.

After the movie, I decided to take a risk and go down to Orchard Road to get some stuff and feel the Christmas atmosphere. I knew that transportation would be crazy and crowds would be scary but decided to try anyway. I wasn't wrong. It was a crowded mess. But I must say that STPB, together with the group of churches, did do a decent job of 'christmastazing' Orchard Road. The decor and the atmosphere, did feel a little more christmassy then usual. Of course, it was expected that the whole Christmas thing did feel more commericalized as well. Well, to all those who might read this blog, may the true spirit of Christmas touch your lives.

On my way back, I went past J8 and saw the Grant-a-wish booth set up by some students from NUS. I thought it was a very nice idea. They had collected wishes from children from different family service centres and then put it up on a board. We could then look at the wishes, then if we wanted, go and purchase the items to fufill the wish of the child. Interesting items. There were requests for Billabong wallets, school bags, an addidas soccer ball, discmans and gameboys. There was even a request for a 6-inch thick mattress for someone's baby. Well, maybe it was my conscience or something, but I decided to get some of the items for the children. There was another lady there who also decided to purchase bicycles for the children. Hope the few items I bought brought some christmas cheer to someone.

To everyone who reads or visits this blog, in the spirit of the season, here's wishing you blessed Christmas!

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