Will you enjoy a movie more if you read a good review of the movie before watching it? Would your opinion of the movie change if your original opinion differs from everyone else's? Would you still watch a movie which you believe kicks ass if everyone around you said that it sucks? Haha. I never really believed that School of Rock well rocks. Yeap. So when my sister asked me to watch it with her, I was hestitant. And understandably so. I have watched the trailers and I wasn't in the least bit impressed with the plot. But I eventually agreed because it was a very long time since I last went out with her and because Aaron Tan (one of my close friends) was also going. At the end of the show, my very original opinion was..It was an average show. Nothing exceptionally great, nothing worth remembering. ANd its funny at the very least. So, an overall response would be....the show was ORDINARY. And when I left the cinema, the general concensus was "It was great!", "its one of the funniest shows I have ever seen" and "Wah. The show really rocks siya". Oops. I didn't dare say that "I think the show is just plain normal". SO instantly, my opinion of the show was elevated to "Ya! It was damn funny! And it was super well done in my opinion." Not exactly truthful. Not exactly sincere. WHich was why I wondered whether I am the only one who doesn't really dare speak his mind but rather 'follow' the crowd. And I really want to watch 'Mona Lisa Smile' even though the review from The Straits Times criticised it. And again I was wondering whether my enjoyment of the movie will be affected because I'll already have biased opinions at the back of my head.

Countdown. The end of 2003. The closure of a chapter in my life. The end of my teenage years. The ending of 'forced' learning as compared to independant learning in University. Yes. Like the previous year. Li Si came over to my house for the countdown. Its rather interesting how she became one of my closer friends even though we weren't really THAT close in Anglican High. Perhapes it was because she was so tickish and laughed at nearly everything I say (I'm not funny. I am merely cracking lame jokes). Perhapes it was because she was so easy to talk to. Perhapes she could keep secrets well. Perhapes she was just simply nice.

And as a sidenote. I have given it some thought and I realised that most if not ALL of my friends are very nice people. I have heard about friends comlaining about their other friends but if you ask me, I seriously have no complains about any of my friends. My friends are nice just the way the are and I like my friends just the way that they are. So perhapes this is one of the reasons I don't really have a love life because I am so lucky to have so many nice friends:) (I'm complaining! But I'm also thankful)

Anyways, Countdown 2003 was the most 'exciting' countdown of my life. Another friend of mine decided to come over to my house for the countdown and even agreed to watch a 'midnight' movie with us after the countdown at Tampines Mall. But because of that. I was afraid that there would not be 3 tickets available at Tampines Mall and thus, I decided to make an advance booking. I called Golden Village Ticket Hotline hoping to book the tickets but instead paid 30cents to receive a computer error message. So, the next best choice was to cycle down to Loyang Point where they had this AXS station where I could purchase movie tickets. Li Si and I cycled down there to buy the tickets. Success! But we had no way to reaching my house before midnight which meant that we would miss the countdown. Anyways, to cut a pretty hectic story short, the 3 of us cycled from Pasir Rix Park to Tampines Mall where we were 5 minutes late for the movie. After the movie, my friend went off for an hour and a half to do some 'things' while Li Si and I sat alone in Tampines Park....waiting....and squaring off in what was our first Dai Dee Challenge of the new year. The cards? A free complimentary Lord of The Rings poker card set which came with the $12 popcorn combo. The bet? To drink a rather medium sized glass of water when we got back for every round we lost. And so, it began. lightning streaked across the sky and light rain began to fall. My menacing eyes captured fear registering in Li SI's eyes. I knew I had the game covered. But Li Si has other ideas. For 1 and a half hours, we slugged it out. "she would flash an Aragon full house (King full house) and later, I would retaliate with a Gandalf Pair (Ace pair)". And finally, it was tied. 4 glasses of water EACH. So, the final deciding game began. At stake was 2 glasses of water. Luck favoured Li Si and I had to drink 6 glasses of water. We headed back to my house where along the way, the 2 'crazy' girls would suddenly just shout "Happy New Year!" to groups of guys and prompt me to add "If ever anything happens, I'll be the first to cycle away ah. I don;t wana get beaten up on the 1st day of the New Year"

And once home, I honoured half of my bet while Li Si honoured half of hers. We then proceeded to the beach to play those stuff that lights up like fireworks which I was terribly afraid of coz I was burned by it when I was young. And then, we proceeded to walk along the park talking crap (really crappy stuff) and the 2 girls would laugh at my lameness and finish my sentences for me. And the whole night, I felt myself saying this repeatedly "and yes..no doubt about it. You just too the words right out of my mouth YET AGAIN!". Anyways, after the sunrise, we had breakfast at BurgerKing and it ended a rather pleasant New Years Day if I do say so myself:) Thanks to you 2 for making my New Year start off on a rather bright note:)