It's my 2nd day of annual leave, and boy does it feel good. :) Spent yesterday morning at the Singapore Botanic Gardens, which was fantastic, thanks to unbelievably good weather. Seems the "Ricky Martin" orchid hasn't been placed in the VIP section of the orchid garden yet. How disappointing! Who wants to see the Margaret Thatcher / Queen Elizabeth / Princess Diana / Princess Masako / Benazir Bhutto orchids when there's a Ricky Martin sitting around somewhere?! (Just kidding, of course. :))

Anyway, my mom's in on the Clay package, and since I was looking for something with a Singaporean motif, the Gardens was a good place to start. I've got the shirt safely tucked away at home -- it's a really nice one -- but the process itself was a little surreal in retrospect.

Me: Is this the large size?
Saleslady: Yes it is.
Me: Is it okay for someone who's a 6-footer?
Saleslady: It should be okay.
My mom: But he's rather skinny. It might be too big for him.
Saleslady: Oh, is he thin?
Me: A bit, yeah.
Saleslady: Then medium would fit him better.

All this while, of course, we don't once mention Clay's name. Imagine telling the saleslady ( who's extremely nice and accomodating ), "Do you think this is the right size for Clay Aiken?" "You mean someone Clay Aiken's size?" "No, I mean Clay Aiken himself!" You get the picture. :)

Doing my part here to help spread the word about a possible Clay CD release party in Singapore sometime in October. Yes, you read correctly. This is the brainchild of an unbelievably resourceful young Claymate ( she's 12 years old ), and we're trying to let as many fans know so we can give her some rough figures to feed back to the record company. Watch this blog for more details in the future.

Anyway, here's a great link to some Clay audio interviews. The first one with Matt and Ramona had me in stitches -- they talk about Clay's shirt "tugs", which later became "yanks", and drove his female fans into a "frenzy". Good stuff! :D

Michael Buble is coming to town! When I saw the news in the papers today, I almost gave my mom a heart attack with my exclamation of "Oh my GOD!" -- she thought our neighbour's dog finally got into our garden and trampled all her flowers or something. Anyway, this jazz singing sensation will perform for 1 night only on September 15th at the SUNTEC Auditorium. It's a horrible place, in my opinion, but considering the rather last-minute arrangement, I think that was the only venue available on such short notice. Tickets go on sale tomorrow. Good thing I'm free, 'cos I'm going to get there early to reserve front-row centre seats! If you're wondering why I'm so excited, all you have to do is listen to "The Way You Look Tonight" from Buble's album. I tell you, if I ever meet a guy who sings like that to me, I'll marry him for sure. ;)

Belated review of Jake Simpson's CD.
This was very kindly sent to me by Jake's publicist, Cheryl, from the William Morris agency ( Thank you so much! ), and since I haven't seen his album anywhere in local stores so far, you can find out more about this remarkably talented young man here. He many not have received as much attention as, for example, Ruben Studdard or Clay Aiken, since he appeared on Star Search rather than the widely watched American Idol, but he's got a powerhouse voice and a personality that would've rivalled the Idols' for sure.

The CD features the 3 songs Jake performed on Star Search, so that's a huge treat. His covers of Stevie Wonder's Isn't She Lovely and Signed, Sealed Delivered I'm Yours are awesome. He sounds so much like Wonder himself it's eerily uncanny. And if you caught him on TV during the live versions, you'll realize how much stage presence he possesses. The other Star Search piece, What's Going On, is also nicely done. I've always liked this song, so I love listening to it over and over again.

The remaining songs are all admirable efforts -- a mixture of pop, rock and roll -- but I enjoy them mainly because Jake varies his tone in each one. He really has a beautiful voice, and my personal favourite in this album, Have A Little Faith, is a lovely, romantic song reminiscent of Kenny Loggins' For The First Time ( from the soundtrack of One Fine Day ). He's got an amazing vocal range, which you will hear on Signed, Sealed, Delivered, and Cheryl tells me he's got more albums coming up, so I'm looking forward to that. Let's hope they'll come to Singapore in the future. :)

I've finished the Dave Barry book -- much appreciation to Mark for lending it to me! :D My mom's taken it for the time being 'cos she wants to know why I've been laughing so much this past week, but I've grabbed it back for a few moments to quote some good parts. Believe me, if you want to read something that's guaranteed to lift your mood or make someone who's sad a lot happier, this will make an ideal present. It's called Dave Barry's Only Travel Guide You'll Ever Need. Just make sure you're not wearing anything tight!

( I'll split the quotes into different parts for different days, 'cos there're so many good ones and I don't want to use them all up in a single day. :))

From the chapter on Air Travel:

"Turbulence".This is what pilots announce that you have encountered when your plane strikes an object in midair. You'll be flying along, and there will be an enormous, shuddering WHUMP, and clearly the plane has rammed into an airborne object at least the size of a water buffalo, and the pilot will say, "Folks, we're encountering a little turbulence." Meanwhile they're up there in the cockpit trying desperately to clean water-buffalo organs off the windshield.

The Baggage Carousel, where passengers traditionally gather at the end of a flight to spend several relaxing hours watching the arrival of luggage from some other flight, which comes randomly spurting out of a mysterious troll-infested tunnel that is apparently connected to another airport, possibly in a different dimension.

The baby in the seat behind you whose parents are obviously poking it with hat pins because there is no other way that a child could shriek that loudly all the way from New York to Los Angeles.

The barf bag . Early barf bags were large canvas sacks: a severely airsick passenger would be placed inside, and the bag would then be sealed up and, in and act of aviation mercy, shoved out the cargo door at 12,000 feet. Today's passenger doesn't get that kind of personalized service, and must place a small bag over his nose and mouth in hopes of cutting off his oxygen supply.

Time for me to watch Six Feet Under -- is it my imagination, or is this show getting unnecessarily racier with each episode? The more important thing is, The Guardian is back on local TV, screening at 8:30pm every Wednesday on Channel i. Simon Baker is doing good work, but I hope the script will stay interesting.

Before I say goodnight, here's another good quote from the latest episode of "ER":

"Some are good days. Enjoy them when they come." -- Kerry Weaver, ER attending.