The Week That Was – Feb 22 – 28, 2010

It was a quiet week at the office work-wise. People were just coming back from their long Chinese New Year break and we mostly catching up with all their messages and action items for work. For us who started work the week before, it was just a normal week at the office.

Highlight of the week was the “Bernarda Alba” musical that I watched at klpac on their preview night. It was definitely not the type of musicals that I was accustomed to so it was really an eye opening experience for me to watch. I have actually heard the soundtrack of the original cast production but it never really registered in my head until I actually got to see a full production of the piece. I guess it just goes to show that while listening to the original soundtrack CD might be enjoyable, it is still a poor substitute to actually watching it on stage.

“Bernarda Alba” was quite dark and somber but it was not without moments of charm and frivolity. A character study in effects of repression and social control, it tells the story of a domineering mother how literally imprisons her 5 daughters after the death of her 2nd husband in an attempt to protect them from the outside world. The reactions and conflicts that arose from this decision drove the narration which was beautifully conveyed through the songs being sung on stage. I definitely enjoyed myself at the performance even with the minor technical details that bugged me a bit while watching.

The other highlight of the week was my board gaming overdose. We had planned to have a board game session at a friend’s house on Sunday but a few of us wanted to have another session on the Friday before because it was a public holiday and they were all in town. We ended up going to the Boston’s Café near my place and staked out our own little corner to play our board games. We played and played and played! By the time we stopped, we had actually played almost 12 hours of board games in one sitting! We had “Settlers of Catan”, “No Merci!”, “Wits & Wagers”, “Times Up: Title Recall” & “Pictionary” on the table that day. Other than the 1 hour that we had to spend virtually in the dark thanks to a power outage at the café, it was just games and good company for the whole evening.

I was afraid that the guys would be all boadgame-ed out when Sunday came along but I guess that the board game bug has hit my group hard. After lunch at a nearby kopitiam, we adjourned to a friend’s house for games. We decided to whip up a batch of double chocolate chip cookies for the afternoon and proceeded to play several board games till it was time for dinner. We ended having rounds of “Settlers of Catan” (a group favorite), “Tribond”, “Kill Doctor Lucky”, “Wits & Wagers” & “Who Am I” that afternoon. I still didn’t get a chance to introduce the group to “Small World” yet but I hope to do so next time we come together for games.

It was a great weekend of games and great friends.