Tuesday, June 06, 2006

the cathay

did you know - "the cathay building and cinema was born a legend when it opened at the outbreak of world war II on october 1939, with zoltan korda's war adventure, the four feathers (1939). it stood as the tallest building in southeast asia and it was the first air-conditioned public place and skyscraper in singapore." (taken from www.thecathaycineplex.com.sg)

after undergoing a S$100-million-reconstruction in year 2001, the cathay reopened it's doors with a brand new look this march! i finally got to watch my first movie there on sunday - the da vinci code. (well-made movie, i liked how the director lead us on the discovery journey to unveil all those hidden secret codes. wish there were more filmage on the actual da vinci artworks and secret codes though. soundtrack's great too!)

the new the cathay is nothing quite like the old one (though i wasn't quite a regular back then). my first impression of it - modern. somehow i felt the old cathay was more "movie-centic", this new one is good but felt too commercialised (not surprising though), with all that high-end spas, waxing palours, mani/pedicure salons, restaurants, eyewear shop etc. mixed into it. somehow, didn't quite recreate the old-time nolstagia. oh, sidetrack a little... the kacang putihs are so over-priced. my girl-friend and i bought 2 cones of kacang + 1 cup of steamed chick peas... paid over $6 for that *tsk tsk*... whatever happened to the $0.50 kacang putih days? :P

most of the retail shops were still unopened when we were at the cathay on sunday - renovation works and all. something interesting to share... (click image to enlarge)


these (taken with my mobile phone camera) are comics laminated across all the wooden shields/ planks of those shops still undergoing reno-works. compared to the usual boring white unpolished plain wooden "walls", these sure add an interesting touch to the entire place.

ps: just wanted to post at least one post on this one-in-a-century 060606 (6 june 2006).... nothing really significant happened, but considering how some people don't even get the chance to write the date in such perfect order their entire life, i think it's still worth a mention *(",)* - of course, the next 6 years ahead - we'd have 070707, 080808, 090909, 101010, 111111 (this is the best!) & 121212.

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