My favourite day of the week. Some claim that their Fridays aren’t complete without hearing me shout “It’s Friday!” on air. Awwww.. Kind hearted liars, those people.

Instead of handling mahjong tiles, I was stuck at home working on a yet to be confirmed project. If the green light is given, you’ll probably hear it in late December or early January. Else it’ll go public later next year. I’ve done like 15% of the necessary preparation. In case you are into numbers, that would be 4,685 characters in traditional Chinese font on my MacBook in five hours.

It’s not because I’m possessed- Halloween’s over. I’m leaving for Taiwan next Thursday for a 9D8N free and easy trip and I’ll be gorging myself to obesity. I won’t have time for anything that is remotely connected to work. Haha!

The Taiwan trip is supposed to be for leisure but I find myself occupied with plenty of errands. I have to get the wheels on my luggage case replaced. The rambling noise of the faulty wheels had everyone staring at me when I was in Hong Kong last week.

Also, I’m required to send in my car for the three year inspection before I can renew my road tax. Thank goodness for this girl from Citibank who’s helping to settle the auto insurance forms. Catherine got me a quote which was $1,000 lesser than the current one. She also advised that I should pay in full instead of via installments as there was a penalty fee should I cancel the policy midway.

Cruz:
It’s ok, I don’t think I’ll be changing anything. And I have a lot of payments due at the end of the year. Can you send me the forms for installments please? Thanks.

Catherine:
Sure. Money no enough. Me too. I’ll send them to you by today.

Very chatty lah, this lady. I don’t know her personally, by the way. This is the second year she’s assisting with the auto insurance. I hope I didn’t cause her any commission or incentives by not paying in full.

One last thing I need to do before the trip is to get a new toiletries bag. Can you imagine the ambassador of a beauty brand getting a breakout because he neglects his skin while playing in a foreign land? Nooooooooooo!

I’m going to make my travelling companions drop their jaws with the items I’m bringing.

Bioskin Cleansing Gel for Sensitive Skin
Bioskin Astringent Softener (toner)
Bioskin Intensive Softening Lotion (moisturiser)
Bioskin Intensive Line Protection (eye gel)
Bioskin UV Shield (sunblock)
Bioskin Enzyme Scrub
Bioskin Blemish Control and Soothing Masks
Bioskin Makeup Remover (for getting rid of dust after a whole day outdoors)
Bioskin Anti Blemish Gel (acne gel for emergencies)

You can visit any Bioskin outlet if you need any of the items above. Please don’t ask me for the retail price(s). I have absolutely no idea… :p

Cruz:
How much did we pay for the tickets? Very tired from the shoot. Wanna sleep!

Andrew:
$71. Should go. Don’t think it will ever come back. Rave reviews all around.

Cruz:
How long is the show?

Andrew:
Hour plus, less than two**. Trust me, it doesn’t feel long at all. It’s so enjoyable you’ll wish it never ends.

Cruz:
It had better be farming good, or you’ll be in farming deep trouble.

Andrew:
Don’t worry. I have every confidence in Avenue Q. Else I wouldn’t pay to watch again after catching it in New York.

** The musical went on for 2 hours and 30 minutes, inclusive of a 20 minute intermission.

The sneaky fella lied about the duration, but I’m definitely not holding anything against him. I totally enjoyed the production!

Avenue Q is an highly entertaining musical- especially for adults who grew up with Sesame Street. While Big Bird and gang taught us letters of the alphabet, simple mathematics (and to give evil laughs at specified intervals) and how not to have an imaginary friend, Avenue Q addresses the issues of young adults in their early twenties. Examinations and infatuations are so yesterday. Barely out of their teens, they think ’23 is old’- wait till they hit 29 like me. A whole new variety of issues is in store- career, racism, sexual orientation, pornography, etc.

Although housemates Rod and Nicky are obviously modelled after Bert and Ernie, and Trekkie Monster inspired by Cookie Monster, Avenue Q does not explicitly acknowledges the children’s television show because of their adult content and language. I’m so grateful I was born in time to watch Sesame Street. Any later, I would be stuck with the disgusting Teletubbies. By the way, are they aliens or something? And is that purple thing which calls himself Tinky Winky gay?

The cast (mainly from the Philippines) handled the puppets brilliantly and Felix Rivera (for Princeton and Rod) along with Carla Guevara-Laforteza (for Kate Monster and Lucy the Slut) were very impressive.

I particularly like “The Internet is for Porn“. I can’t find any high quality clips from the stage production, so here’s a parody taken off Youtube.

One more! An interview with Trekkie Monster. LOL

I’m putting down my headphones and studio microphone in exchange for a lavalier microphone to be clipped onto my shirt on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Instead of going the conventional path by appearing on MediaCorp’s Chinese Channels 8 and U, I find myself involved in English programmes one after another. After interviewing Sandy Lam on Channel News Asia last month, I’m going to terrorise Channel 5 viewers next.

(I’m beginning to consider taking up Bahasa Melayu to prepare for my debut on Suria, as I definitely won’t be able to learn enough Tamil to invade Vasantham.)

At a meeting a few months ago, I mentioned that I wasn’t comfortable enough to host an entire series, so they’ve inserted me as a guest presenter instead. I know I am in good hands as the show is produced by Wawa Pictures. They are the same people behind 一切完美/ Perfect Cut. I must be the most irritating person they have ever worked with. “Camera don’t too low can? No double chin hor? Face matt enough? Not shiny hor?” Hahahhaa.

Edit: Because of my job, I’m buffered from the exorbitant costs of car ownership in Singapore. I reach my studio before Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) gantries begin to suck blood operation, and my parking fee at Caldecott Hill is unbelievably low. It used to be $30 a month, I think. The amount automatically deducted from my paycheck has since increased to $35 or $40. Anyway, it’s so negligible I can’t be bothered.

I finally got to curse and swear like a regular driver this morning. After passing through TWO ERP gantries on the Central Expressway, I spent $17 on parking at Orchard. I’ll spend about 6-7 hours at Chevron House tomorrow. At the rate of $2-$2.50 every 30 minutes, it’s going to be like more than $30?! What the farm.

Ten minutes after Liyi laid her manicured fingers on the photos, I walked into the office and asked for the same thing. She knows that cruzteng.com readers are waiting, so she passed me the disk first. Awwwww…

Don exclaimed loudly last night, “You bought a new phone!”. I gave him a bewildered look until he continued, “You never blog about it. How I know ah?“.

Ok. My friends and I don’t talk anymore. They rely on this blog to catch up on my latest happenings. If that’s indeed the case, would it be of any interest to anyone that I’ve been gobbling an unusually high amount of fibre since I came back from Hong Kong, because I, erm… haven’t been using as much toilet paper as I should have when I was there?

Back to the phone purchase… I was really happy with my Nokia N95. I got it shortly before my great big fall last year. Yes, it went into the drain with me. It would have entered the operating theatre with me if not for the fact that no electrical items were allowed in there. (I wouldn’t be conscious to take pictures with the 5megapixel camera anyway.) It’s so sturdy that I didn’t blink an eyelid when I dropped it again and again and again and again.

Then, my friends were starting to mock at my dear N95. The paint had started to peel, and there were more and more scratches, no thanks to my chor lor ness. And you know what, my N95 had a life of its own! Five minutes after I told Andrew I was likely to join him in the iPhone club, the N95 refused to deliver any SMSes! I rebooted the phone repeatedly and tried resending SMSes in different parts of the island, but the phone simply refused to work! It was displaying a furious fit of jealousy, I think.

Anyway, I went to a Hello! store the same night. The Singtel people received a call 30 minutes before my arrival, “Cruz Teng is coming just before closing time to get a white 16GB iPhone. Let him cut the queue!“.

I love its sleekness.
I love the downloaded apps.
I love how it sync’ed with my MacBook within seconds.
I hate its keypad.
I hate how I have to totally concentrate while typing SMSes.

The current buzzword between the bestest friend and myself is “Farm”. I meant to say “what the fark“, and the phone corrected the word to “farm” just before I pressed the ‘send’ button.

I’m going to chuck this iPhone if I “farm” somebody one more time.