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Yesterday I went to watch Fair Game staring Naomi Watts and Sean Penn. Both are great actors but Naomi started a little slow in the movie to portray a strong woman, but she eventually shows her gutsy self in the end. She plays a CIA agent whose identity gets exposed by the Bush administration when her husband unwittingly reveals sensitive and top-secret information which contradicts

“Fair Game” is based very tightly on a true story. It’s actually two stories evenly balanced into one: that of Ambassador Joe Wilson (Sean Penn with a paunch) and his wife, CIA operative Valerie Plame (Naomi Watts).

The historical anecdote is, of course, the lie that started a war. The lie that Saddam/Iraq had a nuclear program, was enriching uranium and had weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). The “proof” was that the country of Niger had been providing the materials—something Joe Wilson disproved on a fact-finding mission. In retaliation for Wilson not going along with the “program” to get the war on, and instead turning to the news media to out the lie, Valerie’s identity was revealed to all the world by none other than the White House/U.S. government itself.

This action of disclosing the identity of an American spy was illegal, and although the chain of command went all the way up to the Vice President, it was underling Scooter Libby who eventually took the fall.

Since the start of the Second Gulf War took place almost ten years ago, this film can be very instructive for younger people who did not live through these events, so fresh in older minds. In fact, there is a movement in education to use these types of films in history classes—while simultaneously checking the films for accuracy and comparing them with reality. Many actual TV newscasts of President Bush and others are heavily interwoven throughout the film.

My very great friend Anouk Diks is producing the Voice of Holland REAL LIVE, it’s a number one hit reality show in Holland at the moment… it’s really like American idols without the drama.  There’s no Simon Cowell and there’s only 14 contestants who can really really sing, they are so good.

There’re 4 judges and the 1st round is a blind audition, that means that the judges cannot see the singer but only hear them.  Then the judges choose if they want to be the singer’s mentor.  Every judge can have upto several singers to mentor.  After every week there’s a performance and the mentor judge will choose who will be proceeding and who will be eliminated.  There’s this really short judge who is so cool, every indie & rastafare singer he has chosen…. do check it out at www.thevoiceofholland.com.  That’s what I love about the Dutch! They start their own thing every now and then and it’s refreshing, something different from the american stereotypical ways you know

I climbed the Dom Tower check it out www.utrecht.nl, Holland’s Tallest church.  On a clear day you can see the Hague, abt 85km away, Amsterdam 30km away etc…. it’s a great old cathedral with a lot of nice structures and windows and statues, gargoyles you name it.  There’re bells at the tower that rings every few hours classical music.  To ring the bells you play a keyboard type instrument that is connected to the bells, only thing is the keys are humongous and the biggest bell weighs abt 8000+kg!  the whole city of Utrecht, 300,000 inhabitants can hear it when it chijmes!  Isn’t that amazing, hearing a classical music being rung!  I heard on special occassions, the bells can play special request like Happy Birthday and Pop songs as well like Bruce springsteen hahahha, love that idea!

kusse from Utrecht XXXX

I might as well have my own kid, breastfeeding my own is probably easier than spoonfeeding other people’s kid

Space saving and minimalist is my aspirational middle name, so imagine my surprise when I got into the Mini Singles party last last Sunday…. check it out… d ladies had to dress-up a cake for the guys at the icing room and the guys went to “the little things she needs” to buy us accessories.

We proceeded onto Chijmes where we did our gift exchange and found out more about one another in order to answer a quiz later that evening. My partner Vip and I didn’t bag any prizes but we went away with some cool experience for the day like having to take a Mini Cooper S Cabriolet out for a nice spin around town. But the highlight for me was still the Mini Cooper convertible experience… Awesome even on a hot day …. three cheers to the more environmentally friendly car of 2008! check it out at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini_(BMW)

I went to MacRitchie Reservoir

MacRitchie Reservoir sun up

 today and stumbled upon this greek proverb “A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.”  and realised how much we take our trees for granted.

So I started googling about trees and poetry and stumbled on http://www.quotegarden.com/trees.html which was so simple yet profound.

I think we have such an incredible honour to enjoy them.  Singapore’s facing it’s hottest and driest month in Feb on record…. so naturally we feel like diving into a cool pool when the sun’s out.  But trees thirst as well, but what do they do… how do they take refuge from the sun if there’s no other taller trees around them?   

macritchie reservoir tree-top walk

Especially when I crossed the canopy walk and saw treetops and a magnificent skyline of tree covered land as far as the eyes could see.  Hard to believe i was in Singapore for once! I was quite impressed, though there were a few monkey poop present on the walk way…i was pleasantly surprise that the walkway was very narrow and there was a clear walk so it felt like you were really walking amongst the trees. 

There were also very nice elevated wooden walkways thru a few swampy areas within the park.

All in all, we covered 12km in 3.5hrs, great route but tagged as difficult but there’re numerous other routes that are shorter but i was really happy i covered the pink one

It feels pretty darn good to listen to Frou Frou{http://www.youtube.com/user/gynetht#p/a/f/0/WQD9h9naZjU}, sip wine & catch up with a good spy novel {The Messenger by Daniel Silva} to completely escape & unwind on an early Saturday morning. 

Technically i should be sleeping now as I just ended a really tough and long week, what with average 5 hr sleep and killer deadlines all week long!  But i just fell asleep(again) for about 2 hrs in front of the tv so i guess i’m good for another hour or so.  Tomorrow I will be waking up late anyways, so i will take my time to let fatique do it’s thing, right now all I want to do is listen to good music, partake fine wine and re-engage with a really good character.  

and so they say… so I will try to follow this feng shui master’s advise and wake up everyday consciously thinking about something happy if not positive.  Today’s going to be a long day… i will have to pack and clean up the house!  Going to dive again soon after too long.  What can i say, blowing bubbles at leopard sharks and getting clown fishes close to your mask is something i need to do before i close off the year!  una última sonrisa para 2009 ~ one last smile for 2009!

What can I say this has been a really unexpected year in retrospect as we are all winding down or up for the year. Firstly, I sort of rushed back from Mexico, did a pit-stop in UK and found myself back home but left my heart and soul back in Latin America.  It’s been a crazy year to say the least.  I can’t really complain it’s after all not so bad.  But man, could I have wished it any differently. I guess cest la vie is what you say when you find yourself looking at life through a shady tainted glass and falling into situations that you cannot change.

So they tell me to embrace it or change it.  But I feel sapped of the energy required to change things.  I feel a big hole in me but I can’t fill it up because I’m in a stupor. Like I’m stuck in a trance and I can’t seem to move my arms, wiggle my toes or open my eyes wide enough to see the far corners of my room.  I feel caged!  I guess that’s what coming back to reality after 9 months of travelling and living your dreams does to you. 

So am I embracing this… not really. Am I changing it, well I’m trying.  We shall see what we shall see. Brace yourself 2010, here I come!

a bandaged Missy

It’s been a great last 9months in Latin America. I had a wonderful and magical experience and feel greatful to have had the once in a lifetime opportunity to meet and volunteer with other amazing individuals in Mexico’s carribean coast. I must say diving is believing… if anyone of you out there is thinking of volunteering in a marine conservation anywhere in the world… i would say “Ariba” go forth and DO it!!! Will be evolving this blog site to talk more about projects in APAC as I’m back in Asia now and hunting for a job… yes it’s time to re-engage into the cubicle workforce, to lend a quote from Jose Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos’ (OPEC’s president and minister of petroleum of Angola) opening speech “Without any doubt, we are living in exceptional times. Long-established practices and procedures in the world’s financial sector are breaking down.” So here i am following suit with my fine timing in entering back and redefining my “exceptional” work and life experience, to reapply myself in these “exceptional times”! I will be twittering and blogging more, check out my twitter at *gynetht* and promise i will add some photolog soon to mk this more interesting.

love g

Today i brought Missy (our resident Pappillon who just broke her hind leg) in a cab, i think she’s the most well behaved pup in d world, slept like a babe in a cradle! so here’s my first photog posting and i’m dedicating it to her good stoic-woofin bhavior…