A Brief Summary

The U.S. Presidential elections culminated in the outcome I was praying for. I'm a supporter of the Democrats ( have to divert my interest somewhere, since the local political scene is pretty much dead ), and haven't been this excited or elated since Bill Clinton clinched the position in 1992.

I have great hopes for President Obama, and am confident he will endeavour to make good on his promises.

Mad Men finally premiered on local digital cable this week. Verdict on the pilot episode - fabulous! It's easy to forget how the past was actually much more decadent than the present, before health warnings, political correctness and feminism intervened. All the characters smoke like chimneys in every scene, and the amount of male chauvinism, sexual harrassment and multiple forms of discrimation sends me reeling.

But in a good way. :)

Lead actor Jon Hamm is the new Patrick Dempsey -- only much better-looking and a lot more interesting.

Thank you, Starhub! Now if only they'll bring Gossip Girl to Asia. It has to be superior to 90210 -- caught the premiere recently and find it intolerably insipid. No-one on that show seems able to act.


Have completed Philippa Gregory's The Other Boleyn Girl. Took me 6 weeks of late-night reading ( couldn't give up my TV fare to make extra room ), and have gotta say it's definitely one of the best novels I've read in a really long time. In fact, I think the last book which captivated me this effectively was John Berendt's The City Of Falling Angels, and Berendt happens to be my unrivalled favourite contemporary author ( the other being Thomas Hardy, who hails from a different era ).
Am always happy to discover a new writer whose works I can enjoy at leisure.


Michael Crichton's death came as a shock when I read about in the papers this morning. Together with the fact that he's been married FIVE times! The only Crichton novel I've ever read is Disclosure, 'cos the rest kinda sucked. Agree with critics that he isn't a good writer, but somehow, his ideas make for cool screenplays, though not always good films ( i.e. Congo ).
Still, his direction of Coma ( based on Robin Cook's most famous book and starring a very young and gorgeous Michael Douglas ) was most skilful, and his best creation, the TV series ER, remains unsurpassed in terms of writing, acting and realistic resuscitation scenes.

May you rest in peace.

Weekend's going to be busy. Damn mouth ulcers are killing me. Bloody stressed out, argh!