13th-month (not) bonus

I never really thought about it, but it was explained to me why we have this so-called 13th-month "bonus".
You see, we take 1 month to be 4 weeks, which works out to 48 weeks per year (4 weeks x 12 months). However, we know that 1 year has 52 weeks, which if you divide by 4, will give us 13 (months). Hence, actually, the 13th-month isn't really a "bonus", but what we should get for the "extra" month we worked.

My adventure with Tintin

The "adventure" began even before the show, over the drama of the faulty 3D imaging.

At first I thought it was just my 3D glasses, but it turned out that everyone was facing the same problem - we were seeing double images on the screen instead of a 3D effect. My neighbour went to tell the old uncle outside (who distributed the 3D glasses) and was informed that he would notify the management, and she came back to the seat to await action. We thought that was settled, even though the 3D effect still wasn't in effect and the trailers were ending, with the movie starting soon. Well, I didn't really expect immediacy as the message needs to get passed on and investigation done. And I felt that as long as it could be resolved within 5 minutes and not too far into the show, it should be fine. The most would be to pause or restart the film.
However, about 30 seconds after my neighbour reported the issue, one impatient male patron went to check and seeing the old man still outside, started berating the poor man very loudly, accusing him of not doing anything. I didn't hear the old man's reply, but I do believe he did report the matter (I'm sure he called?). And it was none too soon that the patron began shouting down the corridor for someone to do something. OMG! I began to feel embarrassed for whoever who came with this man. He didn't have to do that. I also felt sorry for the poor old man. Thank goodness the patron didn't keep at it too long. My neighbour felt really bad for the old man and I overheard her saying, at the end of the show, that she wanted to apologise on behalf of the man whom she didn't know. I guess she felt somehow responsible because she went to tell the old man about the problem. Well, the 3D effect came back on during the opening credits, so they were pretty prompt in rectifying the error. Anyway, as a friend told me, the 3D for this show wasn't great.
On my way out, I thanked the old man as I handed him the 3D glasses, hoping he wouldn't feel so bad after that saga and not everyone is like that patron.

In any case, after the show, the management sent someone to apologise for the technical fault and offered us a ticket exchange for a free show at the theatre (Nex).

As a side note, one good thing about Shaw is that, if you noticed, they hire the elderly. I even believe (or hope to believe) that some of these staff could have been with the organisation for years. I still recall all the old uncles at Lido tearing the tickets for us.

Ok, now for the movie itself.

Well, I didn't really know how the story was going to be told, and it was to my slight "disappointment" that it turned out to be a 'mash-up' of a few different stories from the series. Ok, it is my fault to have expected something else and to compare it to the books. I had expected a closer keeping to the books. No wonder they started in the middle of the series like that. If you follow the series, by the time of the "Secret of the Unicorn", Tintin already knew the captain and wanted to buy the ship model for Captain Haddock. But this wasn't the case in the movie. The whole show mixed around the sequence to bring in the various encounters and characters. Well, I guess there isn't a need for too many sequels, if any! If there's a sequel, Calculus should finally be in as he was supposed to help them in finding Rackham's treasure.

One of the things I didn't like about the movie was the graphics. Well, maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I still preferred the old type of drawings. Also, I can't reconcile Jamie Bell's look to Tintin's look. I don't really see the resemblance. I think it's the eyes. But I knew all these beforehand so I was prepared for that. But somehow, the movie wasn't as light-hearted as the books. Yeah, there were the funny parts in the movie too, but it felt a bit darker here with less humour. I guess they wanted to add on that "mystery adventure" feel. And really, I would have enjoyed more of the "blistering barnacles" and "thundering typhoons" from Haddock.
What did I like or found good? Hmm...even though I didn't like it, I guess you can say the story was weaved together quite nicely. I think it's still a feat to combine so many stories together.

Oh! I recently acquired DVDs of the old animated series that was shown on TV eons ago. I must go re-watch them. And back to the books too.

Universal Studios Singapore - 1

Well, the reason of putting "1" is that it's my first time there and I think I'll probably go there again, but don't know when.

And my, was it a wash out! I was there when it opened at 10am and unfortunately, it wasn't before long when it started to pour at about noon. Well, it was a good thing my ticket was sponsored, being my company's Family Day, or else very wasted.

As it was with the major downpour, some outdoor rides were closed for a while (on & off), and shows too (like Waterworld). Well, it wasn't such a big matter to me since I'm quite a scaredy cat on rides, seeing that I took a motion sickness pill before going, to play safe. And I've watched Waterworld in L.A.'s Universal Studios before. But the weather didn't really let up, making the day gloomy. But I did take some rides and watched a copy of shows, like Shrek 4-D Adventure, the Donkey Live Show and even the Lights, Camera, Action! at the New York sector.

The Shrek 4-D Adventure had those special effects like water spurting on our faces when Donkey sneezed (eww...) and wind rushing round our legs when spiders were afoot. Donkey Live was actually a live talkshow but with an animated Donkey. It was quite interactive even so, probably a camera somewhere as it addressed the audience directly, calling for volunteers and I'm not sure how they moved the animation coz it was always positioned rather accurately and with expressions that was addressing the volunteer. Just for fun lah.

As for rides, wasn't that adventurous and only took a few, starting off with the very peaceful Madagascar: A Crate Adventure' (think Hong Kong Disneyland's Aladdin ride). Then I upped the level a little with the kiddy roller coaster ride, Enchanted Airways, at Far Far Away. That kind of reminded me of the Flounder's Flying Fish Coaster at Disneysea. And lastly, the Revenge of the Mummy ride. I was filled with trepidation when I saw the video they were playing. But it turned out quite manageable (and short). I was like "it's over already?" when the ride ended. I felt it was probably something like Space Mountain at HK Disneyland.

I did not have the guts to take the Battlestar Galactica and used the rain as an excuse. That looked something like this.

So far I've heard, the Human track is more scary than Cyclon.

And the new Transformers ride hasn't opened yet (opens on 3 Dec). Wonder what that will be like. But the shop was opened already, where I bought a 1-click conversion transformer for my 2-year-old nephew. Cool?

One thing about USS's rides (as my friend told me) is that they are quite short. Which is a good thing for the really scary rides. At least they won't feel like "forever".

That was about it as the rain continued and I left the place at 3 plus. Good thing though as I wanted to visit MBS's ArtScience Museum to see the Dali and Titanic exhibition, which are another 2 posts altogether.