My Little Black Book

Our Lovely Little Afternoon Hangout

2011-12-28T17:11:00.004+08:00

Today I took a half day off work to bring mom for her mammogram. It's been about 3 years since she last had the test. Her being the used to be breast cancer patient once, it's very important to have it checked up once in awhile.

As usual, she resisted all the suggestions from us asking her to get herself a regular health checkup until couple of days ago I told her my allocated budget for the current year by my employer was going to be a waste if she didn't go for the checkup. It was a good time since the year is ending in a week's time. And she finally agrees to go for it. "Mammogram" was the top in her list for checkup. That's what she chose and by the way I couldn't get her to do any other checkup. I'm going to have to choose some other excuses another time to get her to do the full body screening.

Anyway, I was happy that she finally agreed to this. I came home from work for lunch and we walked to the nearby hospital together. Weather was in our favour, although there was a bit of drizzles when I came home, the sky was clear when we walked out of the house for hospital.

Its her first time at this hospital. She was thoroughly impressed by the greenness and cleanliness of this new hospital. After the test, we walked back to the nearby mall, I managed to persuade her to get a new pair of spectacles as she is using the old frame that I no longer used. And oh.. that frame, she picked it up from the junk and she fixed her lens in it to recycle that frame. Could you think about someone who doesn't wanna add burden to her children and not want them to spend a single cent for her if possible? Such is her.

Yet again, I used the excuse of getting the allocated budget wasted for the year, she chose herself a new pair of black framed specs with lots of mumbling of course on how expensive it has cost. On the way home from the optical shop, I insisted buying KFC (one of her favourite fastfood in Singapore and I knew for sure it was almost her time for dinner) home and we had ended our lovely little afternoon hang out.

It was a nice cool day and my heart is full having to spend some quality time with her and get things done for her in this short period of time. It was a good time away from work and an afternoon worth spending my leave for mom.

Love her!

For you daddy..

2011-06-13T22:46:00.004+08:00

Today marks the 6th year he's left this world but never once has he left our hearts. My dad has been the biggest part of our lives, my mom's, my brother's and mine. He's the man with the kindest heart and sweetest smiles. The kind of love that he had for his family and the less privileged people of the town of his, I think nothing in the world could match it.

He's always gentle and he knows just the right way to teach and discipline his children. When we were young, we used to love him and scare of him all at the same time. Just as he's not hesitant with the rewards when we do well at school, he's not taken aback when he had to cane us for our misbehaviour. I don't remember falling sick when he's around, he's a good doctor and he cures with his heart. Like many other people in the town whom he's touched with his heart, we respect him and always feel grateful. He's never once hesitant in waking up in the middle of the night to save some one's life. I couldn't imagine how one could give so much to others and take little for himself.

I'm grateful for what he's done in life for us. Although he seldom shows it, I know he loves us. His life revolves around our family. Whatever that he's done was for us. I miss him so very much.

This is a song sang by a daddy to his little girl, spending a quality time with his daughter while it lasts. Savouring on the kind of memory that would stay in the deepest part of his heart forever. This shows the biggest love that a daddy has for his girl and it touches my heart. It is also the kind of song that could make me cry missing him so much. So, here, this song is for you daddy... hope you are peaceful in wherever you are now.. love ya..

Artist: Adkins Trace
Song: Just Fishin'

I’m lost in her there holdin’ that pink rod and reel
She’s doin’ almost everything but sittin’ still
Talkin’ ‘bout her ballet shoes and training wheels
And her kittens
And she thinks we’re just fishin’

I say, “Daddy loves you, baby” one more time
She says, “I know. I think I got a bite.”
And all this laughin’, cryin, smilin’ dyin’ here inside’s
What I call, livin’

And she thinks we’re just fishin’ on the riverside
Throwin’ back what we could fry
Drownin’ worms and killin’ time
Nothin’ too ambitious
She ain’t even thinkin’ ‘bout
What’s really goin’ on right now
But I guarantee this memory’s a big’in
And she thinks we’re just fishin’

She’s already pretty, like her mama is
Gonna drive the boys all crazy
Give her daddy fits
And I better do this every chance I get
‘Cause time is tickin’
(Yeah it is)

And she thinks we’re just fishin’ on the riverside
Throwin’ back what we could fry
Drownin’ worms and killin’ time
Nothin’ too ambitious
She ain’t even thinkin’ ‘bout
What’s really goin’ on right now
But I guarantee this memory’s a big’in
And she thinks we’re just fishin’

She ain’t even thinkin’ ‘bout
What’s really goin’ on right now
But I guarantee this memory’s a big’in
And she thinks we’re just fishin’
Yeah, aww, she thinks we’re just fishin’
We ain’t only fishin’
(This ain’t about fishin’)

A wake up call..

2011-06-12T01:19:00.005+08:00

Last week, I witnessed an old lady fell with a tray full of dirty plates and bowls while she's working at a food center. It broke my heart watching her picking up the broken pieces of ceramic plates off the floor despite the fact that she was injured from the fall. I was having my lunch at about 2 tables away from the spot she slipped and lost her balance. The moment I heard a loud bang, I turned around to see what's happened. She was on her belly right before where I was seated. She slipped from about 2 meters away and I'm sure the fall has caused her shock and trauma. She was shaky, her elbows and fingers bleeding from the cuts. A few ladies around my table including myself stood up to help her. She seems to be still in shock and probably did not realise that she's hurt. Still trembling, she picked herself up leaning a little against her trolley beside her and started picking up the dishes and cleaning the mess. The concerned passersby are telling her in Mandarin to clean up her wounds, but she kept saying in mandarin that she's okay.

Clearly, she didn't want to lose her job. In fact, she didn't want anyone to notice that something had happened. All she wanted was to clean up the mess that she's caused. She did not say a single word about the pain, the shock and the blood. No moaning, no fuss, just work.

I was inwardly hurt witnessing the incident. A train of thoughts came to my mind. First, for the old lady. How could anyone related to her make her work at this age? Does she has any off springs and how could they make her work at the food centre to make her living? Will the management cut her pay for the damages caused? Will she receive some kind of compensation for the injury? With many of these thoughts crossed my head, the very one thing I wanted to do was to search through my purse and give her all the cash I have in there. One thing about donating cash is that, it can be perceived as an insult. I wanted to do something for her, something that could make the moment better. But on the other hand, I do not want any misunderstanding. Before I could get out of this dilemma, she was soon accompanied by a security personnel to a place where she should be. I felt so sad for her, like the kind of sadness you could not describe with words.

And then I thought to myself, the old folks of this age deserve to stay home and be taken good care of by their children. They have done enough in life to raise their child, it should be the children's turn to take care of them now. If they needed something to do just to occupy their times, you arrange something for them to do at home. Not letting them work as a cleaner, parking attendance, gas station attendant, janitor or worse sending them to the nursing homes. For those who doesn't have any children, this should be the time government takes care of them since they too have contributed the country in some way in life. I might sound too childish to say this, but I do not want to see any old folks suffering and being treated like worthless people. Just as I do not want this to happen to my parents or grandparents, I do not want this for anyone.

I couldn't imagine something like this happen to my mom. Well practically she doesn't have to work because there's myself and my brother who are taking care of her. However, I couldn't help but wonder how she's putting up back in hometown while she's away from us. The fall like this could happen to anyone, especially for older people who could easily lose their balance. Shes in her 60s and couldn't say she's all fit and healthy. Shes getting more fragile with the age. My mom is a selfless woman, who would do anything within her means and capabilities for the ones she loves - especially us, her children. The incident above slapped me hard in the face, a wake up call to myself. Now I have a series of questions for myself. What have I done to make it up to my mom for what she's done in life? Have I done enough? How would I fair on a scale of being a good daughter? Have I been showing enough love and care to her? Has she been feeling lonely or sad by herself? What if she's been keeping things to herself because she doesn't want us to get hurt or be troubled by her. What if she's been feeling unwell and keeping it to herself. What if she falls down while she's alone at home? What if..

After a lot of what-ifs, I've decided to do my best at treating my mom nicer, showing her love, care and gratitude. After all, she's the only one that's left in our life and she's a gem, a role model with the kindest heart. She's been taking care of us since we were born to this age. No matter how old we are, we will always be her babies. Till now, she would cook for us, does our laundries, nurses us while we are sick, watches us like she'd watch a baby. I could never find a single trace of laziness in her. When she's around, she would be doing something, keeping the house clean, hand washing the clothes, tidying up the tables, changing the sheets, preparing for dinner right after lunch, or anything that you could think of for the household and for the family. She wouldn't stop even if we asked her to. I want her to be Happy and healthy. She means the world to me and I love her wholeheartedly. I know that I haven't been a great daughter, but I will definitely be better from now on.

I love you mom..

Married Life as I see it..

2011-05-21T12:07:00.010+08:00

So I've gotten married with a man I was in love with for a good 10 years. We've been through thick and thin. From the days we had to sparingly use a few dollars that was left for the month to a life with a stable and professional career, we've been together, not leaving each other's side no matter what happened. Good to each other, care for each other, true to each other, faithful to each other, stand up for each other, encouraging each other, falling down low and flying high together, share good and bad moments together, I call this thing - Love.

Now that we've decided to start a life long journey together, vowing to each other that we will always be true to each other for the rest of our lives, we are officially a married couple.

Just think about things in general - not just marriage. When something out of ordinary happens in one's life, people ask and they talk about it with or without your knowledge. For the happy event, they ask to share the joy with you. For an event that make them feel jealous, they ask to find traces of your failure yet acting like they care for your success. For a sorrowful event, they ask to show their empathy. For the others, they simply are just trying to have a casual conversation with you. So, people ask.

Very frequently asked, very simple yet utterly difficult to answer, question that I've received over a few months after our ROM - 'How's married life?'.

To those who were just trying to strike a casual conversation with me, I'd give answers like 'Great!', 'Getting used to it!', 'Busy, busy, busy!' or 'Enjoying it'. For those whom I know they actually care, I'd say, 'It's been great, but this can't be answered in one line, let's catch up sometimes to talk about it. It's been awhile since we caught up with each other!'... Really.. I simply can't squeeze my married life into a line to answer that question. It obviously is insufficient and incomplete. So, I've decided to write about it.

I do often have the itch to write but the writing and formations of sentences only happened and disappeared in my head. It didn't get down on the paper or on the blog. I love micro blogging sites like twitter but likewise, 160 characters weren't enough for me to express what I'm going through in my head.

So, there we go, married life as I see it..

Marriage is a wonderful thing for those who are in love, and that's exactly us. We do not have to tell each other how happy we are to be this close together - day and night. You see the same person, from the moment you open your eyes in the morning to the time you drift into sleep at night and not get tired of this routine, that's me.

Married life has been treating us pretty well. We do things that we've always wanted together, from waking up to shower to prepare for work to dinner, planning for a trip together and such. From the practical aspects, marriage is cost-effective, we pay less of the rental compared to what we used to before. Our wallets got happier because we have a combined income of 2 working adults. We don't have to buy separate household stuffs that are needed for bathroom, bedroom, kitchen and living room.

Being a hopeless romantic and someone with high observational sense, I notice and feel happy about every little things that have been changed since he moved into my room, my house and my life. I'm happy just seeing our toothbrushes standing in the same cup, having our laptops side by side on the table, having our perfumes sitting on the vanity top side by side and many others. My single bed has been expanded to a queen - plenty of space to twist and turn, super comfortable and just looking at our pillows side by side makes me feel loved. We have our own sets of pillow, blanket and bolster. We love what we used to sleep on. So, unlike others, we don't synchronise to the full couple set for our bed. But having our own sets of belonging together in the same bed is pretty something. We are opposite when it comes to our likings, we see things differently, most of the time we do come to an agreement, but in some other times, we let each other do what we want differently just as long as it isn't a big deal. Opposites attract anyways.

Unlike last time, my bathroom now holds toiletries that are for men. My shower handle and bathroom mirror have been adjusted to be higher since he moved in - if you know us, you'd know how different we are in terms of our heights. The wall and ceiling of my room now has florescent tiny stars that absorbs light during the day and shine when the light is off at night. He says it feels as if he's looking at the planet and loves sharing that moment with me. The stuffs in my room has been relocated to better fit the new bed and additional drawer cupboard we've purchased to better organise our stuffs, the clothes hanger and the computer table. My air condition produces cooler air now - before that I don't make use of it often and never once called for servicing. He loves the room cool and I am contented with the natural air in the room with the window opened - there goes the difference again. Our room is now filled with the pictures of us together and some just me alone in them, they are all over the places, on the wall, on the table, on the drawer top and almost everywhere. You might be thinking that was me (a girl) who would do these things, but nope, he was the one who put up all of that on the very next day he moved in. Witnessing it makes me happy.

Marriage teaches us how to spare a thought for each other, that all the things need not be spoken but understood. With a little unselfish love, we are able to go through our days with no problems and arguments. Things that are not a must but still have to be mindful for, like planning your schedules in advance and letting each other know so that both are involved in the process and not feel left out. Although we don't have an agreement to tell each other in advance on which day one will not be in for dinner and etc., we still do this for each other. This is part of having respect for each other. We've learnt to have a little of 'I'/'Me' and more of 'We'/'Us'.

Many things have changed. Our lifestyles have changed. I'm not as available as I used to before, for my friends. But never once they have left my thoughts and they still do dearly stay as close to my heart as before. I used to be carefree and up for any impromptu meet up/sudden movie arrangement and late nite hangout past midnights with my girls. I could no longer do these very often because now I have someone at home waiting for me to come home. Although, he's born in the this century, I must say my dear husband is the conservative one, he doesn't like me wearing revealing/skimpy clothes and haging out too late at night for a girl. Even as a guy, he doesn't do that himself. He's cut down on his usual outing with his drinking buddies, although it's to do with his busy work schedule, I know it's to do with the marriage as well. I know marriage shouldn't come in the way to your friendship with your true friends. And I definitely do believe in that. Marriage is a phase of life and in a matter of time, one would get into it some day. What most important is that you stay in contact with your friends and care for them as they are the ones who love you and always there for you when you needed someone in some bad moments of your life. You talk to them about your relationship - boyfriend / husband / family issue / disappointments at work, anything at all. I have awesome friends and I love them all very dearly. I want to be there for them when they need me and if they allow me to, I'd remain to be part of their lives forever.

Obviously, marriage is not a bed of roses and many unpleasant things will happen, family conflicts, disagreements, financial issues and at some phases we might not even want to look at each other in the face. And at some point, life is going to test us for our love, endurance and capability. All we need to do is to brace it by not giving up hope and go through this together. Easier said than done but I hope we will make it through.

For me personally the best part of marriage is building a dream and working toward achieving it hand in hand as a team. We love talking about how we see ourselves in x years time. We shared our dream of owning a house/a car, creating a loving happy family and holiday spots that we would like to go together one day. And I'm happiest when he expresses how much I mean to him and how hard he would work to bring me to a life with no stress and worries but just happiness. I know him for 10 years and I know it's not just all talks but came from the bottom of his heart. Now, it's just the beginning but I do sincerely look forward to many more enjoyable years to come.

Movie Review: Rango

2011-03-20T19:58:00.005+08:00

I'm glad we watched this after the World Invasion. A little fun movie after the chaotic one. We laughed out way through the movie. But it gets a little boring in the middle but still a good one for the lighthearted weekends.

Jonny Depp is at his usual self - a little over the top but still a good voice over.

I will not reveal any kinda story in here because I think you should go watch it yourself and enjoy. =)

Movie Review: World Invasion - Battle Los Angeles

2011-03-20T19:40:00.006+08:00

I went into the cinema with zero expectation because I seriously didn't know what to expect besides lots and lots of chaos.

The movie started with the day of the impact of Alien Invasion, just the snippets. Then it went into the 24 hours before the attack, having the peaceful usual days for all the citizens of US as well as the Military armforce. And yes, followed by the sudden Alien attack.

For the first few minutes of movies, my husband and I were both worried that it might be another cam-corded movie like Cloverfield which we gave up after 10 minutes into the show. The first few minutes of the movie was draggy and gave us (especially me) the giddy spells because the camera kept shaking and moving from one person to another without editing of the movements which is definitely very bad. It caused my eyes to be terribly tired and I felt my eyelids drooped eventually. Yes! I fell asleep 15 mins into the show, I shouldn't even be writing this review in the first place. But I woke up again with the nudge from my hubby telling me it's about time I catch it again cause the movie is at the tempo where the the group of soldiers went into the bomb area and that was their first physical contact with the aliens.

I must say that the movie was done with a lot of props being damaged, bombed and casualties. But as the minutes passed by, the movie has gotten more interesting with not just the fighting but the emotional stuffs that went on while saving the civilians and how the lieutenant sacrifices himself for the good of his marines and how they stick to each other to save as many lives as possible even in the impossible situations. These are the few heart-warming moments and I thought they have done a pretty good job.

I'd give this movie a 2 and half star because it was shot badly in a camcorder like style and it's not advisable to watch that kinda shots for 2 hours.

Saturday Affair

2011-03-20T18:31:00.003+08:00

This is a rare Saturday, one of those Saturdays that my hubby didn't have to to to work. Although he dread to go to work on Saturday while I'm still having my usual Saturday morning sleeping-in in bed, he was surprisingly awake at 9am. He looked at the sky and told me it might start pouring real soon and thought that he'd better go for zz's servicing before he drags to another week. One thing about my dear hubby is that, he gets things done pretty fast and does not procrastinate when it comes to zz's business. Just in case you are wondering, we call his Yamaha Fazer 1 Motorbike - zz.

So, I too get up to make breakfast for him and we both left the house together. He dropped me at the neighbourhood POSB bank to do some banking stuffs and left for the mechanics. After I was done with the bank, I walked over to Rupini to do my brows threading followed by the grocery shopping at the Shop n Save next door. Just when I stepped out of the market, it started raining very heavily and when I checked the screen of my iPhone, my batt was only left with less than 20%. I didn't have a choice but sat there at the benches along with some old folks while waiting for the rain to settle down a little and have my thoughts drifted over to the far away land.

There are a few pet shops around there that does the grooming, spa and some special services I've noticed like Dog Taxi, Dog Hotel, Dog cremation services. Thinking about cremation, that comes to my mind that these house pets are too short-lived to be emotionally attached to. I do not think I'll have the courage to keep one with me. I cried incredibly hard the last time my pet hamster died while I was away at the office. Not knowing if he's falling sick, old or just died of boredom, it's pretty damn lousy feelings to have lost someone/something that you've attached to throughout the days/weeks or far worse, years. Keeping them in the confine of a box, a room or even a flat is also a mean of torture. Animals are like humans too, they need nature to survive. So, I would not recommend anyone to keep a pet if you do not have time to let them out of the box - no matter how big the box is.

When the rain finally settled down to just heavy drizzles, I've picked up my grocery bags and headed towards the bus interchange which was linked with shelter from where I was seating. Thinking that just reaching Northpoint would be a good attempt even if the rain didn't stop totally. It's like a lot closer to my house and all I needed was to cross one small lane and a 2 way road, which I've already planned to dash across. But lucky enough, once I stepped out of Northpoint shopping mall, the rain stopped and only left with traces of random drizzles. I quickly walked back home and started preparing for lunch and dinner.

My darling B arrived home soon after I reached. We had our lunch together and he suggests we watch a movie. So, we booked the tickets online and headed out to the cinema. The movie was World Invasion, I'll post the review later. After the show, we walked out cinema getting giddy spells but loving the relaxing Saturday. He wanted a cup of Coffee to perk himself up, so, the next stop from cinema, we went to Yakun Kaya Toast where he had his Kopi-C along with 2 half boiled eggs and I had my Kopi-O-Kosong (Black coffee without sugar). This sure comforts our nauseus tummies. That's when he suggested we watch another movie - Rango. The beauty of marriage come into picture, now we do not have to worry about the time of getting home at night and having our parent worried about us being out. I'm happily married and I'm loving every second of it. After the movie Rango, we stopped by at the Play! DVD rental machines to rent 3 old movies - Piranha, Unstoppable and She's Out of My League. If I have a chance, I'll post the review of those movies.

We had our dinner when we got home, I hanged the clothes from the washing machine which I'd arranged for a spin before leaving the house for cinema. And after hanging the wet clothes, I've scheduled washed another batch of clothes and we both gathered at the living room to watch our DVDs - first Piranha followed by Unstoppable.

Before we know it, it was already 3am on the Sunday morning and we haven't slept for a bit. Even so, we were both pretty satisfied with our DVD selection and had a great time hanging on Saturday. One of those days, I'd feel in the deepest part of my heart that life is really great and that's why we should live it.

Healthy Lifestyle - Week 2

2011-03-20T17:42:00.004+08:00

Here's the collection of food and drink I've manage to prepare during the 2nd week and have enough time to take picture of them. You may notice as you scroll down, my creativity has gone downhill. heh. I don't have the luxury of time to come up with the fanciful dishes. So, here they are.

The stir fried beef strips and the vege.

The omelet with veg.
The Chicken Spinach soup along with cut chilli and lime.

The Spinach Sunny Side up. My fav breakfast dish.

The mini chicken burger patties. I've made these to take out on the weekends so it's easier to carry along in my small clutch.

The same thing in beef for dinner. A little over cooked because I was distracted chopping veg for the next dish.

Cooked beef in a different way, stewed beef in tomato sauce.

Another stir-fried chicken with veg on the side to bring to work for lunch.

My kimchi inspired dinner made of tofu and Chinese white cabbage.

My better than expected seafood stir-fried with veg. Love the small squids.

Another Omelet with chopped veg.

That's about all for Week 2, I didn't upload some of the repeats. looking forward to the week 3!!

Healthy Lifestyle - Week 1

2011-03-20T17:39:00.003+08:00

Okay, that pretty much summed up what I've had for the 1st week of the Healthy Living mission. I haven't been able to find enough time to post each and everyday's meal. I'm gonna post them in the collection of weeks. Look out for the Week 2 pictures!

Healthy Lifestyle - Day 6

2011-03-11T23:33:00.004+08:00

Another morning madness at home. We usually stayed up till rather late at night and only turn in around 1-2am in the morning and because of this, we found is really difficult to wake up at the first alarm. After snoozing for the 2nd time, I will finally get up reluctantly, washed up and went straight into kitchen to prepare for food.

And on Day 6 morning, I noticed the tips of the cauliflowers were turning a little brownish and decided that its time I finish it. So I've remove those brown portions and chopped the rest of the cauliflower, stir fried them in the pan with a little bit of olive oil and beat one egg in there. So I have a cauliflower scramble egg.

The lunch was a repeat but this time with more asparagus - my fav veg.

There was a pack of spring onion that went bad even more I get to cook them. So, I'm not gonna waste another pack. All blame it on the small fridge that I have at home. It's too full now and it look almost impossible to take up more food. My dinner was spring onion prawns.

Lots of water today again and I had my kiwi today. It was yummy!!!

Healthy Lifestyle - Day 7

2011-03-11T01:12:00.004+08:00

Today I received a call from a good friend and she told me she needed my help to accompany her to the doctor's and have an x-ray checkup. It was a little early in the morning and I took a very short nap again after speaking to her. When I finally woke up, I was already running out to time to prepare for breakfast and I had to make sure that I've packed my lunch for the day. So, I didn't make anything for breakfast, except for the half-boil egg which was prepared using the pre-made half-boil egg maker.

However, this was lunch! I wanted this for dinner and the soup for lunch but after receiving that call from a friend, I thought of how long i wanna carry this bowl of soup in the bag wile I'm with my friend. So, I had this soup heated up when I reached home at night and finished it in front of TV. It was super spicy, sour and just my taste

After I was done with following my friend to the doc, I went to office and I reached around 12:30, so it was about time I should heat up my lunch and savour it.

The fish at its best when eaten with a squeeze of lime!

Healthy Lifestyle - Day 5

2011-03-10T22:31:00.003+08:00

It's the 5th day and I'm already feeling the pinch of burden in preparing all the food at home especially when I had a long day at work. But I'm telling myself that I can do this and I should not back out from something that I've already determined to do. Even for this small thing if I can't do it, how am I going to handle bigger challenges that life has yet to give.

So, I'm gonna keep up with this..

Okay, on the 5th day in the morning, there's no more egg left in the fridge. So, I've decided to go for another source of proteins - Cheese! I'm not really a fan of cheese but I'm gonna try having it. So, I've came up with a very simple cheesy mushroom dish. I've made a wrong move in adding salt into mushrooms while I was boiling them. I totally forgot that cheese is salty. See how I wasn't lying when I said I'm not a fan of Cheese. hah!

All it take was to boil the mushrooms in the water before placing them on the plate. Sprinkle the mozzarella cheese and heat it up in the microwave for about 1.5 mins. The cheese should melt nicely and evenly.

I can either eat it just like this or with the Crackers. When I scoop out the mushrooms, the cheese give the same effect it gave for the pizza pull. Yummayyyy!! But it turned out a little too salty I couldn't finish this dish. Like I said, I forgot cheese were salty.

Lunch was a repeat since my remaining cauliflowers in the fridge are going to go bad in a couple of days. So I had a pan fried fish with the stirred veg on the side. To add flavor to it, I've sprinkled basil leave and my takeout lunch looks like this! Squeeze that small slice of lime onto the fish right before eating it. That makes it taste a whole lot better.

I went a little too adventurous over dinner. I've tried something I've never tried before. Fish Curry!! I'm using just the plain curry powder w/o coconut milk and 1 teaspoon of low fat mayonnaise. So, unlike any other curry dishes you could find in this country, this dish is actually a healthy one. I'm one of those few people who loves fish head - I took this over from my mom. When I was buying the sea bass, I've asked the staff at the counter to help with the scaling and chopping the fish into smaller piece and cut the head into two. So, for 1 fish, I could actually make 2 dishes out of the fish head. LoL.. Ok, now I sound like the most evil person in the world. Here's how my Curry fish head looks like.

The curry powder didn't only smell good, it tasted good too.. The fish were cooked before mixing them into the powder. So, they are nicely cooked. Satisfied my tummy for sure. =)

Healthy Lifestyle - Day 4

2011-03-08T00:31:00.003+08:00

This morning it struck in my mind that I've became the chef in command for my own meals, facing challenges as to what to cook and how to cook them in a portion that is rather limited. I've starting to love the challenge and I found myself thinking of what to prepare for the next meal whenever I'm free.

The dish that came into my mind starts with the half-boiled egg, I just need to leave the egg in the hot water for approx 3 mins and I get the softly done that is not so watery. Since I need a little greens for my veg intake, I've boiled the Sio Pai Cye and pour the chucky garlic lightly fried in a bit of olive oil with added water, salt and turmeric powder on them. It gave a bit of colour in the dish. I've taken 2 crackers with this breakfast cuz I know and I believe I should eat more and better dish in the morning as compared to the other 2 meals.

The lunch was prepared the night before as usual. I've decided to go for the Tuna because I'd like to give it a shot since I've bought these 2 tins of Tuna Lights in water. The tuna was prepared with chopped mushrooms, cauliflowers, onion and spring onions to taste. I've also added a tad bit of Parsley leaves on the whole dish to add fragrance to it. To enhance the look of it, I've placed the whole stir-fried tuna with mixed vege onto the bed of cabbage accompanying the 2 slices of tomatoes.

I came home from work rather late today, So I didn't have much time to prepare a nice dinner but I've been craving for something spicy. And this was what I've prepared for dinner - the simple cabbage soup on the side but didn't make it into the picture.

After mixing it well, I get this!

This is the Burmese traditional salad with a bit of modification to omit the bean powder and crushed peanuts - which would have made the dish taste a whole lot better! However, I was contented with what I've done!

The fruit for the day were Green Kiwi and Apple. I'm beginning to get used to drinking waster almost all the time and finished my 2 litre of waster before the day ends. That definitely is a good start.

Healthy Lifestyle - Day 3

2011-03-07T01:44:00.003+08:00

It's Lazy Sunday and I dragged myself out of bed around 10am to prepare for breakfast. I know it's not a good habit to not eat in the early morning. As soon as my eyes opened, I thought of having egg for breakfast. I had a bit of migraine on the night before, it was because my body is still getting used to this limited amount of food intake. And the numerous cups of water I've been drinking is helping with the detox. So, the 2nd day was rather hard. On the 3rd day, I told myself I'll do something good for myself. Since I'm allowed 5 crispbreads per day, I have decided to make use of them on the Bruschetta breakfast with the sunny side up on the side. It not only looks pretty, it tasted better than I've expected. There's diced green capsicum, chopped coriander, chopped onions and diced tomatoes stir fried in olive oil. I've divided equally onto each crispbreads. The egg was fried using limited amount of olive oil as well. There's my lovely breakfast, Tada!!!!

The stirfried mixed veg tasted very nice on the crispy crackers. I'm so gonna eat this again.
Later that day, I had a sudden craving of salad in burmese style, esp. something sour and spicy. I've decided to boil the chicken breast till they were soft and tender and mix it in shredded cabbage, thinly sliced onion, garlic and tomatoes, chopped chillis and small diced garlic fried in a bit of olive oil with added chilli powder and finally squeezing a slice of lemon juice into it. Mixed well and that was all needed to be done. My lunch looked so good, my hubby wanted one serving for himself too. Easy and healthy dish.

So as not to waste the soup water that was used for boiling chicken and to retain all the taste and proteins that went into the water, I've made a bowl of soup out of it using a little bit of shredded cabbage I've already prepared for the salad, and for the great flavoring, added a bit of chinese coriander and a dash of black pepper powder. It was oh-soooo-delicious!!

It was one fulfilling lunch and satisfied all of my tastebuds. So, I know I didn't have to prepare something heavy for dinner and I know my dinner will only happen late at night, I've went for panfried crispy tofu and stir fried Chinese white cabbage on the side. It was normal, but I need something in my stomach and I can't skip my meals. So I've finished this.

Had my Mandarin orage today and ended the day with 2 crackers alongside a cup of Coke Zero. The weekend was almost perfect!

Healthy Lifestyle - Day 2

2011-03-07T01:13:00.003+08:00

My 2nd day was a little more adventurous because it falls right on weekend - which means I have all the time I need to try out new stuffs and not be afraid of whether or not, I'd feel too hungry or faintish or headache. So, in the morning, although I'd say around brunch time, I've prepared myself a bowl of yogurt with diced apples, bits of Mandarin orange and crushed crispbreads. It turned out pretty lovely, although the yogurt was plain with no added sugar with zero fats, the sweetness from the fruits compensate for the sourness of the yogurt. And because of the breadcrumbs it became a little thicker and tastier. You should try this some time.

With that, I foreseen myself getting hungry an hour or two later. I know I have to make something fulfilling for lunch. And because I'd want something lighter at night for dinner, I've made myself a bowl full of chicken, Chinese white cabbage, bean sprouts and onions. Usually soups are my comfort food, would always have them when I need some comfort. The colour of the picture doesn't do the justice for the taste of the soup, by the way. We have to always remember, it's a healthy program, the food may not look as nice nor greasy nor appetising as the real sinful food but it has got all the natural ingredients that you need for your body. =)

For the dinner though, I've made a real appetising pan fried prawns and sea bass, sided by shredded green capsicum, Chinese white cabbage, tomatoes and (if you notice) my all time favourite, chilli. I must say the prawns tasted the best when it comes to pan fried. I love them. The colour is good and the taste was fantastic. It also was real easy to prepare and it can be cooked in 10 mins tops. Best choice of dinner after a long day at work and you definitely don't wanna be stuck in the kitchen for hours preparing food.

I've moved on to 1 apple and 1 mandarin orange as fruit intake and likewise for day 1, finished 5 piece of crispbreads - annnnnd lots of water!

This was it for Day 2!

Healthy Lifestyle - Day 1

2011-03-06T13:54:00.004+08:00

et, I've decided to blog about all the food that I've prepared for myself during this journey to a healthier lifestyle. Hope you could get a good idea or two for yourself while you wonder which is good or bad for your body. These food are recommended good for the healthier body by highly acclaimed doctor in USA. Find out more from me if you are interested. Will be happy to share the knowledge.

To have a healthier body, I need the following balance intake:
1. Meat / Poultry / Seafood / Tofu / Cheese / Egg as Proteins sources
2. Vegetables
3. Fruits
4. Lots of water
5. Crackers / Cripsbreads
6. Vitamins / Supplements

Following the rules, I've prepared a simple classic omelet topped with diced tomatoes and onions, adding salt and garlic powder to taste.

Had a little troubles with lunch because I need to prepare the food at home the night before to bring it to my office. But I manage to make this on the 1st day. It's Stir fried chicken with Asparagus and mushrooms - both are my favourite veg. So, I'm rather excited about this dish. =)

And for dinner, usually I'd come home from work and prepare for dinner at the spot. So, most of the time it's going to be seafood - which I think is a wise choice since seafood should be less fattening than the meat. For the 1st time dinner, I've prepared the stir fried prawns, sea bass fish and the cauliflowers as the side veg.

That's for the 3 main meals for the day, I've taken 2 apples and 5 wholemeal crackers during the day in between meals as and when I feel hungry. Not forgetting lots of water. As the starter, I've gone to the loo for about 8 times on the first day because my body isn't used to taking in a lot of water on a day. I'm sure my body will adjust to it in time to come.

Pathway to the Healthy Lifestyle

2011-03-06T13:48:00.003+08:00

So.. It's been awhile since I last blogged. Kinda miss blogging. Yet, couldn't find a time to do so.

Catching up with what's happening in 2011 so far, I've gotten married in Jan, I've grew a year older in Feb and now I'm transforming my eat-whatever-that-looks-good lifestyle to a healtier one. I've tried many times to eat healthily and cut down on my carbo intake, but always go too easy on myself and eventually go back to the normal eat-all-I-want routine. So, going into a healtier lifestyle and I mean business this time! =)

To the World's Best Dad

2010-06-15T21:00:00.004+08:00

It's been 5 years today but he didn't leave our hearts even for 5 secs. I couldn't imagine how I would live my life not having someone of a family member around. Now I could and living it, BUT not by choice. If I were given a chance, I'd have exchange my dad with anything else in this world. Reality is harsh that way and it's all part of growing up. We learn to accept what's given to us, either good or bad. Harder if it's bad but we'll learn.

He was and still THE Greatest Dad. All of us miss him especially on this day. He left this shitty world on the exact same day, 5 years back before the dawn arrives, for a better place. If he's given a chance, I'm sure he'd buy a few more years just so he could do a greater good and to be fully prepared to go. But it was all so sudden and uncontrollable. The parting is hard but I'm sure it was the end of pain and sufferring for him. I'm contented that I was blessed enough to see him go and had a chance to bid him the final farewell.

I love you Phay Phay! You'll always be missed. No 'thank you' is enough for what you've done for the family and all of those who you've cared and helped when they needed the most. It's the noblest way to live a life like yours and I'm not sure if I could ever be able to do it myself.

Here's a little tribute to the World's Best Dad. This used to be one of his favourites. I miss him to the core whenever I listen to this. I miss you phay phay.

Capenters - Top of the World

Such a feelin's comin' over me
There is wonder in most everything I see
Not a cloud in the sky
Got the sun in my eyes
And I won't be surprised if it's a dream

Everything I want the world to be
Is now coming true especially for me
And the reason is clear
It's because you are here
You're the nearest thing to heaven that I've seen

I'm on the top of the world lookin' down on creation
And the only explanation I can find
Is the love that I've found ever since you've been around
Your love's put me at the top of the world

Something in the wind has learned my name
And it's tellin' me that things are not the same
In the leaves on the trees and the touch of the breeze
There's a pleasin' sense of happiness for me

There is only one wish on my mind
When this day is through I hope that I will find
That tomorrow will be just the same for you and me
All I need will be mine if you are here
I'm on the top of the world lookin' down on creation
And the only explanation I can find
Is the love that I've found ever since you've been around
Your love's put me at the top of the world

Happy Mothers Day!

2010-05-07T22:28:00.005+08:00

There are many things in life that my memory can't quite hold for a long time. I tend to forget things or rather, they just fade away with time (hastily in my case). I couldn't believe myself when an old friend of mine tells me something that happened a few years back and I was listing to her like an audience when I'm actually part of the story. It could have been the brain that is failing on me or it might just be part of getting old.

Looking back, the first 13 years of my life was in a perfect jigsaw puzzle as I call it, there's my dad, my mom and my big brother, all I've ever needed, all the pieces of the jigsaw that fits perfectly and completely to form a nice lovely picture of my life. We were happy although I'm too young to appreciate this whole meaning of 'Family'. I didn't think of it as a great deal, you know, something that I'm born with, something that comes naturally, something that I took it for granted for what it's worth. If you asked me now, I wouldn't exchange that for the world. I have since realised when it became an incomplete jigsaw puzzle with a missing piece. All you've left with are the fond memories.

The earliest memories I had was when I was 3 years old, anything before that doesn't exist in my brain. My train of memories are in bits and pieces, a single bit or two for each year may be. But I'm quite sure, only extreme ones stayed in my head, they are either extremely unpleasent (none relating to family) or joyous moments, magically and blessingly I had more of the latter. And I'm going to keep all the fond memories with me for ever.

Well not that I've another pair to compare with, my mom and dad are THE best. The best in any way one could think of. I idolise my father to the fullest extent, no one, NO ONE, I meet in this life can be as great as he was. He was handsome, he was kind, he was caring, honest, he's a natural leader who's disciplined and owned the biggest heart. Today I truly miss him but I'm not going to bring out this topic just to make mom cry for a thousandth time.

It's Mother's Day. We brought mom out for a dinner at one of the Sushi Restaurent in Singapore. Although mom did not mention, deep down, I know she truly misses him too especially when my brother and I did something espcially for her and my dad isn't around to experience them. Mom's every bit as emotional as I am, though I think I don't cry very often. She's kind, she's delicate, she's sweet and incredibily caring at heart, though she's not very good with showing it. Everytime I think of judging myself as a daughter, I conclude that I'm not very much a good one. And I feel sad about that. I can be insensitive at times and I don't spend a lot of time with her even if I have a choice. I know it's bad and I feel the pang of regret when I think back. I'm so gonna work on that. I just hope that she's happy staying with us here despite being confined in this tiny apartment.

Okay, enough bragging. Happy Mother's Day all! I truly appreciate what my mom has done for us, from wiping our butts clean when we were babies to loving us eternally and unconditionably from the minute (or even before) we were born. I Love You May May!! Stay healthy always and live 100++ years!

Movie Review: Whip It

2010-03-28T23:18:00.001+08:00

This is one of those movies I wouldn't mind watching it over again in times to come. I didn't know it was directed by Drew Barrymore until I've read this piece of info on IMDB. She was also one of the casts in the show and I thought she looks terrific in there. I'm giving this a 3 star rating, better than Remember Me of course. After all, pretty face isn't everything. It's the substance of the movie that matters.

In Whip It, the story is based on the teenage girl - Bliss Cavendar (starring Ellen Page)who was trying to breakout of the mold that her parent (esp her mom) was trying to get her into. Everything about her said 'I just want to be myself and do my own thing, that doesn't mean BAD thing'. She's the girl who starred in the recent movie 'Juno'. There was one ambitious mom who always wants the best for her daughter in a way she should relate to. But there was a girl who wants to break out of the shell to shine but not daring to make her mom upset. Eventually, there was an opportunity that popped by for her to realise that she's rather good at Roller Derby sport.

It was light, it was fun and it was one movie that was worth watching for me.

Movie Review: Remember Me

2010-03-28T23:05:00.005+08:00

There's always a conflict when it comes to choosing the type of movies to watch with C. It's a girl-guy thing. There are certain movies which I can never persuade him to watch (such as this one!) and to that effect, there are many movies which are a no-no for me too (such as star war, eiks!). That's why it was a lot easier watching girly genre with my girls. Same thinking, same taste, same opinions and it's all fun!

It was a girls night out but there's a guest who sponsored the dinner despite of how we refuse to split the tab equally. We should thank him for that. He's Y who's a special friend of my girl A.

There was just one reason and one reason only why we've decided to watch this movie. We have never really seen a non-vampire version of Robert Pattinson in a movie and we wanted to find out how he would be like.

A few minutes through the movie, I felt a sense of regret. And it just grew bigger and bigger as we sit in the cinema. It plainly was boring, the casts and their acting weren't that great, and the story was simple and kinda expected. All 3 of us felt agitated towards the director for not using prettier girl but Emilie de Ravin. She's just not the girl we want to see in a movie with Robert.

Just a simple love story mixed with the family affairs. Didn't know Pierce Brosnan was in it too. All of us agreed that he's gotten older and getting the potty belly. This movie is one of those movies I watched without checking out the trailer. During the Credits, I can't help but noticed that Robert Pattinson himself was one of the producers of the two for this movie. Uh huh!

In summary, it's definitely not worth your movie money. If you really wanna see Robert that badly, u could wait till the DVDs are out, rent it. Not buy it.

Movie Review: The Lovely Bones

2010-03-21T22:31:00.004+08:00

I've watched this movie not knowing what to expect out of it. This truly is the type of movie that is mind-provoking and realize how fragile our lives are and how dangerous this world is.

This is one sad story starring wonderful casts Stanley Tucci (as George Harvey - serial murderer) and Saoirse Ronan (as Susie Salmon - the poor 14 years old victim). Although this is the kind of movie I would not like to watch if I were given a prior warnings about its sadness, I'm giving it a 4 stars rating because it definitely worth it.

I don't even want to reveal the story outline here. You should watch it to understand it and be amazed by it. But if you're someone who is not into slower paced movies, then probably this isn't the one for you.

Standley Tucci was nominated for the 82nd Academy's award - Actor in supporting role in this movie, but Christoph Waltz in “Inglourious Basterds” got it instead.

Book Review: Rumour has it by Jill Mansell

2010-03-14T00:16:00.003+08:00

My first read from Jill Mansell and I remember seeing this in a movie poster, starring Jennifer Aniston but didn't get around watching it. I've gotten this book at a slightly cheaper price and I thought there won't be any harm buying it cuz if this aint great, it won't be made into a motion picture, right?

And I was right to a certain extent. I didn't regret buying it but it wasn't good enough to have my nose in a the book. It's never easy writing a good book and I'm not going to judge the author's writing style in all respects to their knowledge and skills. I'll just speak in terms of likings and tastes. Different people has different tastes when it comes to reading. Jill Mansell's style of writing isn't my cup of coffee.

To explain further, you know you love the author when you feel right through the character and you could definitely visualize and felt exactly like the character. While expressing what Tilly feels about Jack in the book was what made me want to give this book a 2 stars rating. For such instance, I'm sure Stephenie Meyer could have done better.

I've learnt many stuffs through this book though, firstly, the term Girl Friday. Aha! I didn't know what it was untill Wiki explained that to me. The story is about this girl named Tilly who works as a Girl Friday at a house and fall in love with the friend of her employer who is known to be a playboy. It is written in a funny and romantic ways. There are many great things in the book but I just don't feel that the romantic parts were not great enough.

Movie Review: A Serious Man

2010-03-13T23:40:00.003+08:00

I cannot believe this movie is this boring. That's the first thought I had when I was watching it. The only thing that catches my attention to the movie was the setting of the 70s. It's rather fascinating to get to see the outfit of that era. That was the only thing and my one star goes to that.

And guess what? To may surprise, okay not that surprising, this movie was nominated for Best Picture and Writing (Original Screenplay) for Oscar Academy Award. I know most of the movies are boring if they are award winning, BUT, this is close to the extreme. I don't know how many time I had to pinch myself so that I won't fall asleep throughout the movie. It was tiring watching this and it's almost torturous. I will NOT advise anyone to watch it unless I really hate that person. Now you get my point.

If you'd like to find out more about this movie, read it here.

Movie Review: Dear John

2010-03-13T23:03:00.002+08:00

First off, I'm going to be a little bias here for 2 perfect reasons, 1 - It's written by my favorite Author - Nicholas Sparks - The great great author of many brilliant love stories, 2 - It was a movie date with my all time favourite sis K. Movies always taste better when you're sharing the moment with your loved ones, aren't they? What's more, we sneaked some food into the cinema, had funny moments while we tried our best to not disturbs the fellow patrons with the fragrance of our yummilicious food and eating it discretely.

I've read many of Nicholas Sparks's recent novels. But it's a pity I haven't yet read this. One day I would like to read this too, if I'm able to find this at the bookstores.

It's a simple love story starring 2 sweet leads, Channing Tatum (as John) and Amanda Seyfried (as Savannah). It wouldn't make me wanna watch it if it's not for these 2 lovely leads. I love them both. Channing as goodlooking as he is and Amanda as a better leading cast as compared to the recent one she's appeared in, Jennifer's Body, where she was overshadowed by Megan and she was supposed to be the ugly best friend of Megan. I knew for the fact that Megan couldn't act, Amanda was way better in the Jennifer's body movie. This, I'm sure most of the guys will oppose to what I've just said.

Anyway, the movie is about this 2 lovebirds who fall in love with each other instantly while Savannah was vacationing at where John lives. Soon after 2 weeks, they have to part and started writing letters to each other even in the hardest circumstances. It is definitely one touching story, no doubt since it's by Nicholas Sparks. The love between father and son, the love between a boy and a girl and how life was unpredictable and uncontrollable. Although I don't agree on certain part of the movie was realistic, I'd still rate this movie better than Up in the Air. No offense to an award winning movie, but that's what I honestly thought.

Movie Review: Up in the Air

2010-03-13T13:28:00.003+08:00

Watching this movie wasn't intentional. It was totally because it was gorgeous George Clooney, better still, have not seen a trailer or read the review before watching it. Immediately after the show started for about 15 mins, we went 'Ohh... O', we're in BIG trouble, trouble keeping ourselves awake throughout the movie. I knew this movie was nominated with some academy awards and I did set my own expectation to a certain extent that I should have for award winning movies, most of which are boring. And this movie proved that particular belief of mine right. But end up, this movie didn't win the award but with some nominations only.

Actor in the leading role : George Clooney
Actress in the supporting role : Vera Farmiga
Actress in the supporting role : Anna Kendrick
Directing : Jason Reitman
Best Picture : Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and
Jason Reitman, Producers
Writing (Adapted Screenplay): Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner

But I would like to admit that the story is rather different from the usual common movies. It's something fresh, something new. The story is about this independent organization that has number of agents who travels around the world to their clients company and help sacking staffs of their clients. Sound rather weird, isn't it? Not only that is weird, but also rather depressing. Imagine sacking a list of people from an unknown company, consisting working mother, poor folks whose family depends on his/her income to survive on a day to day basis. This fact about this movie separate itself from many other common movies.

I don't remember watching many of George Clooney's movies, except for Ocean's Eleven, etc series. He was as usual, grayed hair but still gorgeous. Along with him in the movie were Anna Kendrick as Natalie (the infamous girl from Twilight series, Jessica - Bella's classmate) and Vera Farmiga as Alex (Noticed that she's the one who appeared in the show Orphan)

Other than the unique storyline, nothing else was quite fascinating about this movie. As a new comer, I would really like to support Anna Kendrick but I think she's not quite up for a big role. She did try to look all serious, but I think she isn't yet competent enough.

I'm giving this movie 2 stars, if I were you, after reading this post, wouldn't choose this movie over other non-award winning normal movies.

Chinese New Year Celebration with Team

2010-02-22T23:24:00.003+08:00

It was a treat from the Unit Head. He's always been a generous one when it comes to treating the team. Besides countless number of coffee supplied, these are the bigger occational treats that happen at certain timing on a yearly basis.

Yum Cha restaurant is located at the heart of China Town. We had the below Lou Hei - for Bringing in Good Luck as Chinese believe and various type of Dim Sum.

Thanks to the Unit Head and wishing us a very good year ahead for the team!

Movie Review: Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief

2010-02-17T21:03:00.004+08:00

It was almost like a desperate attempt to prolong the so-long-yet-feels-so-short CNY holidays. It was me and my best sis, K, mutually agreed to watch this movie at 9:50 on the last day of holidays. It was a good fun getting a cup of Starbucks each before running off to the cinema. Lucky that K booked the seats before hand, all thanks to the ultra convenient online booking system these days and to K who paid for it too.

This is the movie I've been meaning to watch and didn't manage to catch it since last week. From the trailer, it looks a lot Harry Potter-like with lesser magic. I've always been a fan of Harry Potter. So, this went straight to my 'must watch' list.

The story revolves around this young boy called Percy Jackson (played by Logan Lerman - quite a bit of uncool name for someone with such a cute face, huh. I didn't know what his name was. It's the work of Google. He seemed vaguely familiar but I couldn't recall from where I've seen him before. IMDB told me that he was the small kid who lived in the virtual world of games in the recent movie 'Gamer' - starring Gerard Butler. So, now I know). Percy was raised by her mom Sally and his stepfather who he hated, spent his teenage years as a normal schoolboy until one day something unbelievable happened to his life. With the explanations from Mr. Brunner (played by Pierce Brosnan) and his childhood bestfriend Grover (played by Brandon T. Jackson), Percy then halfheartedly believed that he's a half blood (i.e., half human, half god) of the King of the Sea, Poseidon and now all the gods and all other creatures from the enemy clan Underworld are after him because they are suspecting him to be the thief who stole the Lightening Bolt - the powerful weapon of the King of all Gods. Being the son of Poseidon, Percy is able to use water for all kind of purposes which include using as a weapon, healing solution or any other magical means that one could think of. He was sent to Half Blood Camp to learn various skills he should acquire in order to face any kind of troubles that lead ahead of him. In an attempt to save his mom back from the Underworld Leader Zeus, Percy, Annabeth (played by Alexandra Daddario) who's a daughter of Goddess Athena and his best friend & protector Grover, set off for a quest to find Zeus, who was holding Percy's mom as ransom in exchange for the Lightening Bolt.

Okay, I shall stop babbling about the story before you feel disappointed for revealing too much of it.

Overall, it's a fun movie, lighter and more understandable than Harry Potter and the Lord Of The Ring kinda movies. Definitely watchable because the casts are young, pretty / cute / handsome dudes and chics. I just love admiring them sometimes. Aha! There are many funny lines and dialogs in the show, both K and I appreciated and both went all giggly throughout the show. The protector Grover (half human, half goat) was cute in his own way. Annabeth was one brave soul, fight like a real fighter and has a pair of blue eyes that would make most of the girls literally hate her for having them (at least I did!). Percy was all lost, small among his camp-mates, powerful once he knew how to make use of his powers, magical and definitely the kind of heroes most of the boys would want to become. And not forgetting something, you'd see flying sneakers (sponsored by Converse :D) too. Go on! Have an enjoyable time watching it. We both felt magical watching it, so I'm guessing you would too.

Lovely February

2010-02-16T11:29:00.005+08:00

There are many reasons why I love February. Number one, my birthday's in it. Number two, my mom's birthday's in it. Number three, Valentine's day's in it. Number four, it's one of the only 2 mnths I receive the most presents throughout the year. *beam*

First off, I'd like to dedicate something to my lady.

Valentine's Day
What makes V-day even more memorable is that, it's also my mom's birthday. Every year of this day, we will give her a call if she's not with us to wish for her birthday and she will in turn goes on and on about how we should take care of ourselves and how she's been doing well (even if she's unwell, she will say this to make us feel happy) and how we should not forget to pray and etc.

'Happy Birthday' to you May May. You are the BEST and we LOVE you always.

"~~There are times when I screw things up, when I'm being selfish, when I disappointed you on every smallest or biggest matters, when I'm not giving enough time spending with the family, when I make you cry in one way or another, despite of all that, thanks for loving me anyway. You're my only wish I have in life that was fulfilled to its 100%. Thanks for always uber warm, always there for us, always there for me, always caring, always giving unconditional and unending love. You're the reason my world go round. Love You May May!~~"

Secondly, it's Happy Lovers Day!!

It might be the day the couples makeup if they have been going through a rough patch, might be the day the couples breakup because they finally realise that they don't belong to each other, might be the day that holds the same as any other normal days, might be the day that some tie knots vowing to love each other forever. Giving all that, for me, this day is just any other ordinary day. I believe that to show someone how much you love him/her, you should not wait until this date to do so. Every single day you're breathing, you should be loving that person if he/she is the right one for you. Every single day together should be appreciated.

We just hangout like any other normal days. Everywhere was crowded with lovebirds, every recreational place you could find, restaurants, malls, cinemas, parks, beach and everywhere you could think of. So, this is not even a great day to hangout. I don't like crowded places.

We've decided to head down to Brewerkz for a couple of drinks and good food. The Mussels in Beer sauce from Brewerkz was my favorite. I have to eat it on every visit.

I didn't manage to capture a pic of Mussels cuz I was too eager to eat it when it arrived and only realised that I have not taken a pic when it's almost finished. We ordered fried shrimps as well. It tasted so good, reminded us of what we used to eat back in Burma.

When we arrived Brewerkz, it was still hot outside with the afternoon sun, so, we have decided to sit indoor. The crowd was just nice, not too packed and not too noisy. Usually we would prefer al fresco, enjoying the breeze and the view. But it wasn't an option at that time.

On the way out of Brewerkz, we walked along the riverside towards the boat quay area for another chilling place with Shisha. If you don't know how it looks like. Check out the pic here. The Shisha you could get in Singapore is non-nicotine and drug free, totally harmless and definitely will NOT make you go high. All you are inhaling is the smokes that come thru the charcoal on the top of the flask, that went past the flavour you asked for (mint, apple, any other fruity scent) and then through the iced water at the bottom of the flask and all u need to do is suck in the smoke and exhale it out. The whole session last for about 45 mins. First time trying and don't understand why people love to pay for this stuff. Conclusion: Shisha smoking is overrated.

We've ended the v-day with the late night movie 'The Wolfman' and I've posted a review for that before posting this up.

Happy Birthday to me!

Okay, I just can't leave this part out while I was still at this - Lovely February. The 10th was my Birthday!

It not good to be getting old, your look changes not positively but negatively, your skin doesn't feel as smooth as it used to be, the fingers and toes that were once cute and lovely are no longer such, instead your feet is hardened now from all the walking and standing you've done in life for the past 25 years (okay 24 years, you can't walk till you're a year old? I don't know I'm just guessing), your arms and tights are flabby and have lost their firmness, whatever you eat everyday go straight to them, this is the age when you have to tell yourself to eat less, exercise more and visit hospital for regular heath checkups (hey, people die at this age or even younger these days). So, what's so good about getting a year older?

Okay, stop whining! Truth is, I enjoyed all the attentions. There! I fessed. :P

Every year, this period of time in particular, I was able to feel love and friendship all around. Make me realise who my friends are. I've received many presents from the best friends and co-workers.

It was this cutie hiding in that super big wrapping bag.

The girls in the office are the sweet ones I could proudly call as 'friends'. They have gotten me an earring holder stand which I have been looking for ages.

Another highlight was meeting up with my best friends. No matter how busy we are with work, we've never failed to meetup and hangout on our special days. They have both gotten accessories for me. Loved the lovely pressies, earrings, the necklace, the pendant and the bracelet. They were the BEST!

These are my bestest! I know this word doesn't exist, but BEST is not a good enough word for them. So, Bestest! =)

Timbre @ Art House was THE great place to hangout. Good food - pizza in particular, drinks, live bands, friends and fun, nothing more I would ask for. It was one great birthday celebration! Thanks and love you girls!!!

Movie Review: The Wolfman

2010-02-16T10:57:00.004+08:00

It was the night of valentines day, February the 14th. We were both determined to catch a late night movie. The crowd at the cinema was horrid with young kids, I used the term 'kids' here cuz they are really 'kids'. But guess what? Mostly are with their dates. Whatever has happened to younger generations?

We were a little disappointed cuz we couldn't get the tix for the movie we wanted to watch, 'Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief'. So, decided to watch this one regardless.

The movie's starring Benicio Del Toro (as Lawrence - the wolfman) and Emily Blunt (as Gwen Conliffe). The running time is about an hour and 45 minutes.

There were suspense, surprises and some awesome moments in this movie. Many times did I jump out of the seat for its sound effects, sudden movements and scary faces. The effects pertaining to the transition from human to the wolfman was rather fantastic but gruesome, blood all over the movie, flying body parts and many more.

The story starts with Lawrence's homecoming, reason being that his brother Ben went missing for a few weeks and that Ben's Fiance wrote a letter to Lawrence to come home. Therefore, he came home only to realise that his brother Ben was murdered in the wood with wolf attack suspect. Wanting to find out more on his brother's death, Lawrence visited the hippies village and ended up bitten by a wolf on the neck, but he managed to survive from the attack. There are beliefs that if a person is bitten by a wolf, he will then be cursed and turned into a beast on every full moon night and will become an enemy and threat to the community. The belief has somehow come true and hence the wolfman story started. I will not be revealing more of the story here for the sake of those who has yet to watch the show.

The only disappointment I felt rather strongly was that I thought the wolfman is going to be a good guy. I know that he will turn into a beast on fullmoon night. But I was silently hopeful that he will not kill people, he will be a good wolfman who recognises someone he loves and all. But I was wrong and therefore disappointed. You can't blame me for this cuz mostly the comic names that end with 'man' are good people and superheroes, just look at 'superman', 'spiderman', 'bat man', etc. see?

Overall, I'm giving 3 stars and did not regret catching this movie.

Movie Review: Valentine's Day

2010-02-13T23:28:00.004+08:00

This can be considered as the Valentine's Day celebration with my closest girls. We always have a good laugh when we are together. We can be ourselves when we're with each other, you know, like you don't really care if you might say something wrong and that the person will be cross with you, kinda things. It was great Valentine's Day eve and I think spending this time for this sort of movie with the girls is even better than with a guy cuz guys might not know how to appreciate such movies.

The cinema seems really quiet during Chinese New Year. Every Chinese in town is hibernating, I mean celebrating their CNY with their family and friends. It's awful all the supermarkets and eating places have to (decided to) close during this long holidays and that we are required to stock up our fridges if we are concern about ourselves starving to death.

Okay, back to the movie. First off, they have a cool website for this movie. You may click here to visit. And remember to check out the 'Soundtrack' section. I think that some of the songs they used in the movie are pretty cool.

Plus side of the movie is that you get to see most of your favorites in one movie, so it's like a whole lot good stuffs put into one package for the price of one movie ticket. So, it was worth it. But definitely the movie has its own standard running time and because of this time constraints, you don't get to see some of the favs for a longer period of time. Basically it's about a few love stories combined into one. So, you get to see some loving, cheating, mismatched, forbidden (keeping that small school boy getting a crush on his teacher. aha!), awkward, best friend-like lovey dovey stories all around this movie.

If you are in the mood for something light, something sweet and something humorous, this is the movie for you. Remember to watch it before v-day ends. This might just keep you in the v-day mood. =)

Movie Review: Law Abiding Citizen

2010-02-13T17:24:00.003+08:00

I didn't have much interest in such type of movies but happened to watch it and bamm! turned out it's a good one. Okay, better than good.

Starring 2 great actors Jamie Fox (As Nick Rice - Assistant DA) and Gerard Butler (As Clyde Shelton).

I'd suggest you watch this movie without reading the synopsis or watching the trailer (that if you haven't) cuz I think it would make this movie even better for you. I watched it with no expectations and in turn, I've got all the satisfactions I usually get from GREAT movies.

Both of the actors were good in their own roles. While watching this, there are times when you know it's not the right thing to do but you secretly wish that might just come true for the terrible people in this world.

Go on. Watch this movie. I gave it a two thumbs up!

Book Review: Everyone Worth Knowing by Lauren Weisberger

2010-02-07T22:40:00.003+08:00

I have read this book with a lot of distractions. Gotten this one together with the sex and the city by Candace Bushnell, thinking I'd read one after another. However, I've given up on SATC before reaching the half mark because I thought it was boring and better off watching the movie than the book. So, I've decided to start reading on this one and concluded that this is slightly better than SATC. But before I get to the real story out of this book, I was off for a vacation and only managed to pick this up after. So, I honestly think that my review will be biased somehow since I've lost some excitements in the book and also have broken the momentum of reading it.

One of the other books from the author Lauren Weisberger of 'The devil wears Prada', but I didn't enjoy this as much as I did for other books of hers. It is still a nice book but not good enough to make me want to buy it.

The story is about a banker turned party planner called Bettina Robinson. She's led a life of boring bank employee (that sounds real familiar to me) before one day she spoke up to her irritating supervisor that she quit. How I wish we could all do that in real life with no regrets. But Bette is a lucky girl who has a super rich uncle - whom she calls Uncle Will - who is a columnist in the leading newspaper. So, things fell nicely for her in the transition of careers between a boring banker to a cool and glamorous party planner. No matter how her life has turned a 360 degree, deep down, Bette is still a hopeless romantic at heart. I will leave the rest of the story for you to read it for yourself. This book covers everything to do with party, planning, celebrity, gossip, scoop, betrayal, pretense, dating, paparazi and many more.

I'm giving this a two star, good to keep you company on your boring day, well at least better than some trashy books.

Movie Review: The Blind Side

2010-02-06T23:38:00.004+08:00

Any movie that is based on true story is touching but could be boring. This movie belongs to the first. During the first 3 minutes of the show, I thought I regret watching this movie cuz it appears to be like a documentary. This was one of those movies I've selected to watch without having seen the trailer. So, I seriously did not know what this movie has to offer.

Sandra Bullock (as Leigh Anne) in the movie, I thought, was a star. She's beautiful, she's natural, well why would she become a diva otherwise, right? She's the kinda woman I would like to become one day in life, successful, have loving husband and a happy family. What's more to wish for? Quinton Aaron (as Michael Oher (aka) Big Mike - yes the gigantic guy in the poster) was big (obviously) high school kid who was being adopted by Tuohy's family. Can you believe that Quinton Aaron was born in 1984, that makes him just a year older than me but he's 3 times my size in terms of length as well as the width. haha.

This movie is touching in a sense that when you've become a family member, you will feel protective of your family members. You might be stupid in academic sense, but you know how to love your family and protect your family, regardless you're black or a white. And as for the parent in the family, you do your best in supporting your child, forgiving him, teaching him and driving him towards the successful future. That's exactly what the story is about.

It is really a nice movie that made tears well in my eyes at one point. You have to watch it to appreciate it.

Movie Review: Tooth Fairy

2010-02-03T23:29:00.003+08:00

It was Wednesday, it's ladies night at GV Marina and there's no other interesting movies showing at the preferred timing, so, that was the reason for watching this.

Not so much of The Rock (Dwayne Johnson)'s fan but I think he acts all fine. Giving this movie just 2 stars. If you've watched the trailer before watching the movie, I'd say, you've already gotten the whole picture.

The Rock (as Derek) was disbeliever for tooth fairy and dream crashers for kids. Therefore, he was being summoned to become a real tooth fairy for a week but extended to be longer due to his misbehavior.

Nothing pretty much worth talking about. A few funny moments here and there. And that was it.

Movie Review: Legion

2010-02-01T00:15:00.004+08:00

Chose this between this and Tooth Fairy and I was fairly disappointed. One of those movies I happened to watch without having seen the trailer. But the poster looked rather convincing. The six packs, the tattoos, the weapons and the highlight was the wings.

I'm only giving one and half stars, so, you can decide whether or not you would like to spend some money watching it at the cinema.

This is another movie of the actor Paul Bettany whom I remembered seeing in the Da Vinci Code and the very old movie Wimbledon with Kirsten Dunst. And yet another movie of the apocalypse and the world's extermination. There's the good and the bad. People were infected by the demon and started killing, or rather transforming to become one of them, the innocent and uninfected ones. You have to watch it to understand it.

Since I'm giving a bad review, I do not want to write anything more than above. But just note that there's nothing fanciful about the wings you see on the poster, so don't fall for the carrot like a little bunny.

Travel Diary: Day 4 in Langkawi

2010-01-31T23:00:00.006+08:00

27 Jan 2010
Last day here at this peaceful town, we got ourselves ready for the checkout in the morning. The plan was to pack, checkout, be on the road till about 2 hours close to the check-in time at the airport for the flight at 5:00pm.

We had a few places in mind that we wanted to cover before we take off.

So, we were all ready at about 9:30am in the morning, used the last coupon we had for the breakfast and came back up to pack. They didn't even bother to check the room while checking out, the coffee we took and the water bottles were all free. I thought we might need to pay for them.

The luggage and stuffs went to the boot of the car, there we went all the way to Kuah town again, this time on our own, not by the bus. I was on the passenger seat looking at the map and trying to navigate. He was at the wheel looking all happy.

We have managed to take a pic of us in the car. using the timer of course. It's worth a 20 secs of stiff smiles.

Langkawi Fair Shopping Mall was one of the attractions listed in the guide book and we wanted to visit the place just for once to see what's there to offer. But when we arrived at that place, we were both a little surprised. It's not really the town's fault not having a big mall, it's ours to expect something close to a mall found at any neighborhood in Singapore. Here's the pic of the mall. It is a mall, I swear!

Although it is small in size, there are some few familiar shops such as Nike, Adidas, FOS and Body Glove. We've bought a couple of tops each from the Body Glove and a few souvenirs to give away. This small town was close to Thailand just across the border, so we realised it's very much Thailand influenced, in terms of both food and the shopping items. Most of the things you could find in here can be found in Thailand too. But, in Thailand could have been cheaper thou.

On the way from Langkawi Fair, we routed ourselves to the Cable Car station to see if we're in time for the Cable Car timing and to find out how it looks like. It was 10Km away from the town. We rested for awhile at this viewpoint to enjoy the nature and to take a few pics.

He usually could pose better for the camera. See what I mean?

There were monkeys roaming the place on the way to Cable Car Station. I wonder if they do attack those on the motor bike. They looked rather harmless though. But I'm sure, if you happen to walk pass with a pack of food or sweet drink in hand, they will attack the food.

From a far, we could already see the cable car station up the mountain that looked so high we thought it's impossible for the cable cars to reach there.

We were running out of time (okay, I fess, we were too scared to try this), so, we didn't take the cable cars. Instead we drove to the nearby attractions like Seven Wells and the Oriental Village.

We had our KFC lunch at the Harbour Park - one of the attractions in Langkawi as well. A beautiful place with nice boats and yachts parked at the harbour, for a moment it looks straight out of a movie.

The beach Harbour Park.

The Langkawi version of KFC.

The Harbour Park. Love that small boat (at the front) in particular. Her name is Bella Mia II. How Cute!

After the meal, we made our way back to the Airport cuz we don't want to be late for the flight. We arrived at the airport at the nice timing of 3:30 when the counter is already open for check in. So, We checked our baggage in and had a cup of coffee each at the Starbucks. By the way, their wireless connection suck.

Before we know it, it was time for boarding. And that's when our journey ends at Langkawi.

We have enjoyed ourselves. Good Bye Langkawi and thanks for all the fond memories to last for many more years to come.

Travel Diary: Day 3 in Langkawi

2010-01-30T22:01:00.005+08:00

26 Jan 2010

While we were booking for Island Hopping on the 2nd day, we have also booked for the Snorkeling trip for the 3rd day. It is a whole day activity and cost was RM95 per person. The bus to pick us up at the Hotel at about 8am and to come back in the evening at about 5:30pm.

Because of the planned activity, we were forced to wake up at about 7am to prepare for the things to bring and also wanted to be in time for a quick meal at the breakfast place. We came down to the hotel restaurant at about 7:30am and had our western breakfast that includes, a toast with butter and jam, omelet for me, sunny sideups for him and a cup of coffee each.

I do not have many pictures of this day as well for the same reason, I didn't want it to get wet.

The bus arrives at 8am, we were the first tourists to be picked up. Thereafter, the driver drove around picking up other tourists from nearby hotels and before we knew it, the bus was almost full and we were all set towards Kuah town for the Kuah Jetty Point, from which we have to take the boat to the Payer Island for snorkeling.

We were both like enthusiast little kids who can't wait to go for snorkeling yet we both can't swim! Hah! But we were not worried cuz they will be providing all the equipments that we will need including the life jackets, goggles as well as the flippers, and we have both decided to stay as closest to the shore, just in case, you know.

The boat ride was rather long, took about 1 hour to reach there. We have decided to go up the open air area of the boat and sat there to enjoy the wave and the view until I've gotten enough sun on the shoulders and started to feel the burning sensation there.

I had a bit of sea sick from the boat ride as well as during the snorkel, there was quite a wave happening in the sea. We were dropped at the jetty at payer island, expected to enjoy the water until lunch time where they provide a decent packed lunch each.

We both had a few fish bites on the legs and he injured one of his toes from the uneven stone underneath. other than that, we were both happy. We went back down the sea after lunch for the last dip and to take a few pictures underwater for any fish we could find. The toilet and shower room only provides sea water, so, taking a fresh shower there isn't an option. We were both really burnt from the sun and felt sticky from the sea wather all the back to the hotel.

When we arrived at the hotel, the car that we rented for 24 hours was already waiting for us. This is our ride for the 3rd and 4th day in Langkawi.

I couldn't describe how happy he was to have our own ride to roam the place.

We just couldn't wait to get in the car and drove out for dinner. We dropped by at the Cenang beach again to take a few pictures.

This is the most stunning pic of the sunset at the beach.

After this, we went to search for a good place to have our dinner and decided on the Thai Restaurant called Sawadee that a cab driver suggested on previous day. After looking at the menu, we couldn't decide what we wanted to eat, so made an easy choice of Steamboat for 2 at RM35 per person, the spread includes seafood, chicken, noodles, eggs, and other veges, tofus and balls. We chose his fav, Tom Yam flavour soup and I thought the food should be rated 3 out of 5.

To our surprise, one of the wait guy at the shop spoke to us in Burmese. We were really happy to have found someone from the same country. He asked if we were from KL, he served the food according to what we've requested so we felt generous that night at the dinner and left him a tip of RM20.

After dinner, we drove to the place that we saw on the trip back from Kuah Town, the big bridge just outside the Cenang town to feel the breeze and to enjoy the countryside view.

We came back after a short while cuz it was too dark and we shouldn't be out this late in foreign country, you never know what's out there.

That was the end of another day in Langkawi.

Travel Diary: Day 2 in Langkawi

2010-01-30T21:16:00.005+08:00

25 Jan 2010
2nd day in Langkawi. We were given with 3 sets of breakfast buffet vouchers for both of us for the 3 nights stay at the Hotel. The breakfast was only between 7:00am to 10:30am. Since this was supposed to be a relaxing trip for both of us, we didn't restrict ourselves to wake up early in the morning. We only tried to make it in time at about 10am so that we won't miss our breakfast.

Here are few pics taken at the breakfast place.

They had the varieties of food, western (different type of bread, cereals, milk, coffe, tea, butter, various type of jams), fruits, local dishes, chinese and Indian cuisine. On the 2nd day, we had our fried rice with a few local side dishes we would like to try and also the cute sunny sideups (see below) and coffee.

After the hearty meal, we went to consult the event manager at the Tour desk. One thing we were happy about this whole trip is that we hardly have communication problem, unlike going to Thailand. Everyone we met, at big or small shop, could speak English in the form that we could actually understand. The lady at the Tour Desk was called Mala, she's friendly and informational. Since it was already close to afternoon time, we didn't have a lot of activities we could choose from, cuz most of the full day activities starts early in the morning like 8am. And we were not interested in doing the land tour, etc. So, since the time permits only for the Island Hoping on this day, we opted for that option. The boat from the Awana Jetty will leave at 2:30pm. Since we have about a few hours to kill, Mala suggested we go for Cenang town and have a quick shopping if we would like to get anything from there. And she even offered a ride to the town cuz it was almost time for her shift to end as well. So, we took her car to the town and she dropped us at the Underwater World building. We didn't go in for that because we both think that it's not going to be a real deal, plus we have been to the one at Sentosa in Singapore. So, we didn't want to spend for this. In stead, we went to the Zon Duty Free Shop nearby, I bought a nice red Adidas dry fit top for my brother cuz it was worth it, only at RM55 which you cannot get at this price in Singapore. And, both of us did a bit of shopping for snacks to bring back to Singapore for the colleagues, and some snacks for both of us for the next few days. He was very happy to have spotted the Vodka Chocolates and bought a box back to the hotel and claimed it tasted so good and natural that he didn't even have to drink Vodka anymore. Hah!. After we were done with the Zon, we went to another minimart to buy the phone card to top up the prepaid card that he brought along with him to Langkawi. And that small shop was like 'Heaven' for various type of alcoholic drinks in a very very cheap price. Even cheaper than one at the airport. Most of the big shops in the Langkawi town are all duty free. The gov seems to have planned for the tourist attraction with this factor. We saw a lot of tourists just like us. He bought a nice bottle of Peach alcoholic drink for me that was oriental looking and the label on the bottle said that it was first invented for the Lady Empire in China. I wasn't a very much a vodka fan like him, so, it was thoughtful to him to get something I'd like to drink. When I tried that when we got back to hotel, the fragrance was really nice and peachy, tasted sweet but the alcohol level wasn't a joke. It was a perfect drink for me.

Because of a late breakfast and the time for the Island Hopping was also set at 2:30pm, we did not have our lunch on this day. Instead, we found a pathway to Cenang beach and thought that the view was really nice. So, we have decided to sit at the pub overlooking the beach to rest for awhile to cool ourselves down from the hot sun and of course to have a drink or two. This is the place and he was really happy being there.

They have a nice low tables with the big cushion to lie on.

We did not go in to the water because the weather was hot and we are saving our dry clothes for the next few days' water activities.

We took a cab back from the Cenang town to the hotel at only RM10 and got ready for the Island Hopping. We didn't bring my cam along for the water activities, instead only bring his cuz it was waterproof and hence can take pictures underwater. We did not have to worry about wetting it. Pictures to come later.

It was already about 6pm in the evening when we're back from the Island hopping. We were all soaked with sea water and sand in our pockets. After freshening up, we head out for a dinner at Cenang town again cuz we've decided not to eat at the same hotel restaurant and also didn't want to stay in and order room service. We have decided on the first chinese restaurant we found and saw that there were quite a number of tourists already seated for dinner. So, we thought this wouldn't be that bad.

We sat down and ordered our beer (yes, again!) cuz it was as cheap as only RM4. And order Prawn Omelet, Stir fried Asparagus and the Chilli crab. Food was okay except for the Chilli Crab, it was nothing like we have expected and usual chilli crab type we find in Singapore, it was prepared with a lot of herbs and cut chilli. The crab itself wasn't fresh, too salty for my taste, I didn't like it at all, it was rather disappointing. We have decided not to order any more crab dish for this trip.

This is the crab dish I was talking about.

We were quite beat from the Island hopping activities, so after the dinner, we head back to hotel for an early night.

Good Night!

Travel Diary: Day 1 in Langkawi

2010-01-30T20:05:00.006+08:00

24 Jan 2010

This was the very first trip (require taking Airplane) alone with him. Although we had to came out of the busy schedule from work - which alternatively mean that few days before today, we are working our asses off burning midnight candles for work - we were both very excited and believe that this is going to be a good break for both of us.

We took the bus from Yishun going direct to the Singapore Changi Airport, had our lunch at the airport and went straight to the check-in counters for Tiger Airways. The flight was retimed to depart 30 mins later than what was initially scheduled. But we didn't even complain a bit because, this would mean that we could sit at the McDonald's for a cup of cappuccino and a walk in the airport duty free shops.

The flight departs at about 2:30 in the afternoon and we arrived safely at the Langkawi Intl Airport at about 3:50pm. Since it's a small town, quite obvious the airport is small too. But when I arrive, I was pleasantly surprised by the interior deco of the airport.

See what I mean? We bought a bottle of Smirnoff Vodka at the duty free shop, thinking this would be cheaper than the rate in the town. Boy, were we so wrong! More on this later.

Taking taxi from the airport to the hotel was very easy too. We just had to approach the Transport counter near the exit door of the airport and tada! we were given a taxi ride to the hotel with just RM22. Pay at the counter, take the receipt, show the receipt to the taxi uncle and you're all set to the destination. Easy huh? You don't have to worry about haggling for the taxi fair (this exactly was my initial thoughts).

This is our hotel front view, only 4 stories tall. The hotel is called Awana Porto Malai Hotel which I booked via online. I thought that the price for the hotel was reasonable. The thing that we realised when we reach here is that, tall buildings are hardly seen around the town, except for some high end hotels, most of the buildings and resorts around town are only a few story high.

We are happy with what was provided at the hotel, except that the staffs at the hotel cafe's attentiveness level was downright close to zero. More on that later. We stepped into the requested Sea view Superior bedroom, and both of us went, 'Woah'. For me it was because the room was clean, the enormous king size bed was arranged with the super clean and white sheets and the clean shower and toilet. For him, it was the spectacular view we get from the room. He always has a thing for sea and nature. So, he was like the happiest guy on earth for a moment.

This was the views from the room. The room has the sliding doors with immediate metal frame like a small balcony (reminds us of those small tiny apartments in Spain we see in the movies) with the thin translucent curtains draped across it. Quite a romantic view I must say.

Right outside the hotel parameter is the small jetty with the boats and yachts parked at the jetty. We took the speedboat from this same jetty on the next day for Island Hopping trip. More on that later.

This is the other side of the view from the hotel room.

This is the bed I was talking about.

After a cool refreshing shower, we were both too hungry to explore the town and it was almost 6pm in the evening. So, we set off to the hotel's restaurant for dinner only to realise that they only serve dinner from 7:00pm cuz the food is not ready. We order a couple of beers for both of us and requested for some snacks to go along with the beer, and they replied, 'We don't have! We only have pastry'. And both of us were like, 'What?'. In the end, he managed to ask for some peanuts, cuz something to chew is better than drinking on an empty stomach, right? The wait girl came back with a bowl of mixed nuts, that were not crunchy anymore. I wonder if she retrieve those from some old jar of nuts that has not been used/served for a long time. But we made do with that picking only crunchy-looking bits from the bowl cuz we were really desperate for some food. This was why I mentioned earlier about the attentiveness of the staffs. There are many small incidents that happened only to prove that the staffs there are not service oriented. But I'm not going to elaborate in here cuz writing that would make this post a few pages long. The view from the place we had dinner was stunning, the pictures are in his cam, I have yet to take those from him. So, I'll post them at a later time. We had the most expensive dinner at this place throughout the trip. It was supposed to be a fine dining place, but we were too hungry to settle for one. So, we have ordered a few hundred grams of Tiger prawns, crabs, the overpriced mushroom salad and the delicious pineapple fried rice accompanied with the odd tasting thai spicy soup. The bill came out to be about RM170. That's why I said it was the most expensive meal we had for this trip.

We came back up to the room and guess what? He was still hungry! We ordered a plate of Fish & Chips from the room service and satisfied with that because the staff was polite and the meal was served hot. We had this meal together on the small table dragged nearer to the side of the balcony, accompanied with a bucket of ice, soda water to make the vodka mix (one we bought from Airport) and everything just felt perfect right here in a cool breezy night.

Good night on the first day at Langkawi.

Movie Review: Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant

2010-01-28T23:35:00.004+08:00

It's one of the lame shows I've ever watched. But crazy as it sounds, I enjoyed this. Okay, more than enjoyed this. I was dragged to watch this while I was rooting for the vote of watching Sherlock Holmes. But this movie's show time was much more favourable than the other one, so I've watched this half-heartedly. But guess what? I did NOT regret watching it. It has got its own suspense and thrilling scenes although it seems at first, very much like a horror-comedy movie.

My boyfriend fell right for this when we were watching this as a trailer and he went, 'let's watch this!' and I was like 'What? No way! It's just another Scary Movie type of movie'. But well, I gave in when the time comes.

This is one movie which I had to google for the casts, I did not know any of the actors. It's starring Chris Massoglia. Although I don't really know who he was or which movies he's acted in, I've started to think that he's actually not bad looking.

The movie is about the good and the evil, many terms they use in the movie are unfamiliar to me, for example, Vampaneze. Like, I didn't know what the hell is Vampaneze. Anyways, they did explain a little bit about these terms in the movie in the dialog, but the part I enjoyed most is about the freaks. Freaks that regenerates any body parts, freak that has two tummies in one body, freak that grows beard on the face when she feels intimate. I thought they are really quite awesome and you don't get to see them in any other normal movies.

I'd say it's an enjoyable movie.

Movie Review: Alvin and the Chipmunks Squeakquel

2009-12-28T00:20:00.003+08:00

This is Great! Need I say more? The chipmunks are back! This is exactly the kind of movie that could melt the hearts of all the audiences in the theater. It doesn't have to have a great story behind it, all it needed was make those chipmunks shake those bom bom and everyone went: soooo cuttteeee!!

The story started with what was left off in the previous movie. The evil guy Ian ended up staying in the dumpster, totally lifeless while the 3 singing chipmunks (Alvin, Simon and Theodore) sing their way through in the concerts. But due to some kind of accident, they were moved from Dave to the grandma place to be taken care of by grandma and enrolled for school as well. Literally, they don't learn a thing at school but instead they became the icon for the school singing contest. There was introduction of female version of Chipmunks in this movie, Chipettes. In fact, there are also 3 of them, Brittany, Jeanette and Elanor. The story of how they come about, I will leave it for you to find out yourself.

All of them are adorable. Theodore and especially Theodorable. I love him very very much and I think they (Theodore and Elanor) make a really good match. Hah!

It's worth watching at the cinema, with great sound and visuals. You won't regret spending the ticket price on it. So, go enjoy!

Movie Review: The Fourth Kind

2009-12-27T23:51:00.004+08:00

I know, my rating is miserable for this. This was impromptu. I didn't have any plan of watching it. But there was this few hours we needed to kill, before watching another show, we have decided to just try this out. One comment, we were cheated!

There were rumours about this movie being a true story. It's all loads of craps. This aint real. It's all made-up and totally an outcome of imaginary Alien Abduction.

The story is based on the mystery of people gone missing in a small town called Nome in Alaska. The supposedly real Psychiatrist named Abbey Tyler (played by the Resident Evil star Milla Jovovich) stayed in this town and one night, her husband got murdered. In order to find the source of how the husband was murdered and why, she got herself into the mystery of Alien Abduction. She came across patients who are sleep deprived and have kinda the same symptoms of sleeping disorders. Someone has been disturbing them while they were asleep. Like I've mentioned, it all came down to one possibility, the Alien Abduction. A lot of hypnotisation involved in this movie, in order to retrieve the memories of the victims of possible abduction.

The movie did explain why it was called the fourth kind. If I don't remember wrongly, the first kind of evidence is people claiming of seeing UFO. The second is seeing Aliens, the third, having contact with Aliens and the fourth, the abduction where Aliens abduct human being to torture and that the disaster they face during the abduction was beyond our imagination. Quite obvious, the movie didn't exactly show how they torture people. Or even, didn't even show how the supposedly real Aliens look like.

This movie greatly reminded me of other movies of the same types Clover Field and The Paranormal Activity. They aren't real but to make it closer to the reality, the movie did NOT reveal anything. It just leaves the audiences hanging somewhere in between. The same old story of, 'This is really happening somewhere, whether or not you believe it, is your choice' bullshit.

The show is only 95 minutes long and it doesn't worth your ticket to the movie and the trip to the cinema. This might already be out for viewing online somewhere. If you eager to watch it, go find some source and watch it online. Just giving 1 star solely for the actress.

Movie Review: Princess And The Frog

2009-12-27T11:17:00.002+08:00

11 year old girl in me told me that she loved this movie very much! =) And the other fellow 10 years olds in the cinema enjoyed the movie too, proving with their giggles and laughter.

I went to this movie with 2 mothers, both enjoyed the show and commented that their kids would love this too. The line to the ticket booth at Shaw, Lot 1 shopping mall was ridiculously long and the people in the line barely moves. I got hold of my tickets 5 minutes before starting of the show, although I joined the line half an hour beforehand. That's how bad that was.

This is another animated film from Disney, in my opinion, yet another great show after the recent blast movie UP. Only difference is that, Princess and the Frog is not 3D animated. It's the old school 2D and reminded me of those cartoons I've grown up watching when I was a small kid. This is one of those movies I ended up watching without prior preview of the trailer. It's always a safe bet to watch Disney's cartoon and how much can it go wrong, right?

The story was great, unpredictable at times. I thought, Princess Charlotte voiced by Jennifer Cody was a little too hyper. The girl of the real age in me told me that the movie could do without those musical-like scenes in it, but again it's targeted for kids who definitely enjoyed those. So, it's kinda like a debate within myself. If you have a small kid at home, your cousin, your niece (girls will enjoy more cuz it's a little princessy and girly) or your own kids, bring them to this movie. They will enjoy this. The only downside is that the frogs can be designed to look a little cuter but oh well, how cute a frog can get. Hah!

Book Review: My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

2009-12-25T10:09:00.003+08:00

This is going to be very remarkable because I'm giving this book a 5 stars, which I hardly do to any other books that I've read. This was a borrow from a colleague. First introduction to the book was from the motion picture, the same name as the book, starring Cameron Diaz as Sara Fitzgerald and Abigail Breslin as Anna Fitzgerald. This 13 year old girl was the one from the recent movies Nim's Island and Definitely, May Be in 2008. It's always a safe decision to buy or rent the book that has been converted to a movie because most likely the story has to be good to be made into a movie and coz no one in the movie industry will commit suicide by attempting to make a good movie out of a bad book, right?

I read this book initially, with a light heart knowing this is going to be another movie like book with not much of a substance in it. I knew it was a touching story from the trailer I've seen for the movie. I didn't think this was a big deal. And I'm giving this a 5 stars not because of its sadness, but because I fell right into the awesome writing style of the Author Jodi Picoult.

The first thought that has crossed my mind while reading a few chapters through this is that, 'I'm so gonna own this book!'. This is exactly the kind of book that I'd collect to read it again and again in years to come. I have this imaginary study room filled with the ceiling-high shelves and shelves of books that you have to use a ladder to reach to the top of the shelves. Okay, enough said.

My first comment - 'This book is awesome!'. There are a LOT of things you can learn through this book. The emotion, the tragedy, the thinking in the shoes of so many different characters, etc. It's hard to be thinking, speaking and being in the shoes of someone else, but it's harder to be in the same as many other people. But Jodi breeze through the book taking the place in the head of many different characters, at one time, she was 13 years old girl, at another, she's 30+ year old firefighter dad and another, she's a lawyer mom who fights for the kidney that is needed to keep her daughter away from her near death situation. It is extremely awesome how she could do that. Most of the books I've come across are the authors putting their pen through a character and the things revolves around that main character.

Okay, there's good and bad in doing this - being in so many different selfs. Good thing is, you know how exactly they feel about a situation and the different take from the same event. But the bad is that, you lose track of who you are at different point of time. But Jodi managed to eliminate this part of loosing track by separating the chapters by the different character and stating the time stamp of when it happens. I totally love this book!

The story is about the 13-year old girl who has been the constant donor for her dying sister since the day she was born. Not forgetting that she was born with a purpose in life, that is to save her sister. She was genetically designed to be the perfect donor match for her 2-yrs old dying sister. But one day, she has decided to file for a petition against her parent for the emancipation from making her a kidney donor for her sister. It's awesome how Jodi could pen through a 13 year old girl's head, I don't even remember how it feels like to be a 13-year-old girl anymore. I can't help but to spill some of the bits and pieces of the book here.

Anna Fitzgerald
"I was born for a very specific purpose. I wasn't the result of a cheap bottle of wine or a full moon or the heat of the moment. I was born because of scientist managed to hook up my mother's eggs and my father's sperm to create a specific combination of precious genetic material. In fact, what Jesse (her brother) told me how babies get made and I, the great disbeliever, decided to ask my parents the truth, I got more than i bargained for."

Sara Fitzgerald (Anna & Kate's Mom)
"When you have been with your partner for so many years, they become the glove compartment map that you've worn dog-eared and white-creased, the trail you recognize so well you could draw it by heart and for this very reason keep it with you on journeys at all times. And yet, when you least expect it, one day you open your eyes and there is an unfamiliar turnoff, a vantage point that wasn't there before, and you have to stop and wonder if maybe this landmark isn't new at all, but rather something you have missed all along."

Kate Fitzgerald
"For a long time, I was sick. The transplant nearly failed, and then, inexplicably, I began the long steep climb upward. It has been eight years since my last relapse, something not even Dr. Chance can understand. He thinks it is a combination of the ATRA and the arsenic therapy - some contributing delayed effect - but I know better.

Grief is a curious thing, when it happens unexpectedly. It is a Band-Aid being ripped away, taking the top layer off a family. And the underbelly of a household is never pretty, ours no exception. There were times I stayed in my room for days on end with headphones on, if only so that I would not have to listen my mother cry. There were the weeks that my father worked round-the-clock shifts, so that he wouldn't have to come home to a house that felt too big for us."

In my opinion, the book has its beauty of twist and turn and of how it presented itself. I'd say a Must-Read if you are the lover for books, like me.

Movie Review: Avatar

2009-12-25T09:01:00.004+08:00

To be extremely honest, watching this movie didn't cross my mind despite the fact that I've seen the trailer many times over again whenever I was seated in the cinema to watch another movie. I'm definitely not a fan of animated flicks, more so if it's a combination of both - animation and real acts. But I know this movie has topped the chart and that many people around me have started to talk about this and this fuss made me go - okay I might watch this. And there I was 3 days ago, seated at the 4th row from the screen with cramped neck half enjoying the show. Seated too near to the screen isn't any help in trying to focus on what's showing. The giddy spell has taken its toll and I was in need of some medicated oil or in worst case, a plastic bag (you know what it might be useful for) in just 15 mins from the start. That's when I told myself that - it's okay. Juz try to rest. I can always have a second chance to watch this show, if not a third or a fourth.

In my opinion the movie has earned its rightful credit. Everything in it was grand, technology - impressive, mythology - awesome and dreamlike, emotional aspects - endearing. Although the plots are rather predictable, I've enjoyed the show. If you have not watch it, you might want to skip the rest of the review and should go enjoy it for yourself cuz it definitely worth the money and the time, oh forgot to mention, it's a long movie with close to 2 and a half hours running time. My first impression when I saw this as trailer was - Avatar is all about ugly creature! And I'm not going to watch it. Well obviously you can tell that I thought I was wrong cuz I'm giving this a 4 star. I enjoyed this movie more even more than the recent blockbuster 2012. No kidding!

If you don't mind knowing more about Avatar, here are some info I've gathered and thought they are worth sharing. The story is about the group of army troops with the help of intelligent scientists, planned the mission to search for some kind of rare stones which worth a fortune. They believe that these stones exist in Planet Pandora. However, in order to get what they want, they first has to get rid of the residents in Planet Pandora called Navi. The lead actor (Sam Worthington) was assigned to this mission to learn things from the Navis and to gain their trust in order to make them leave the planet they live in. Through the mission, he has learnt many things about the true culture of Navis and as expected, fallen in love with the land as well as the girl - who's the daughter of Navi King. That was the reason why I mentioned it was kinda predictable. However, i shall not reveal anymore of the story since I need to respect those who have not watched it yet.

I didn't have a lot of movie memories with the main actor but he seems rather familiar to me. It took me a recall from my boyfriend that he was the Wright guy in The Terminator Salvation movie. I must say it's awesome how they make this guy's leg looking very much dead. He acted great but irritation at first how he set his curious self free without thinking about the danger he might face in the unknown forest. We got to see both of his human self and avatar self. Unlike for the actress Zoe Saldana, she was the real Navi in Planet Pandora, so we didn't get to see her human self, I needed google's help to find out who she was.

Anyways, the bottom line is, my view of lame and ugly creatures has turn a 360 degrees. I left cinema last night thinking to myself that it's very touching movie that definitely did show the strong bonds between the human and the kind of aliens and it teaches us that despite the difference in the nature of the world, all it needed was a little caring, love, trust and empathy to love each other.

And oh, I just can't miss this part out. When we left the cinema, my boyfriend's made a comment that I thought wad hilarious. He said "whatever that girl's name is in Twilight, the avatar guy is juz like her, can't wait to be changed to be accepted in the other half's community.". Wahahaha. You'll know why he said that if you have watched the show. Go enjoy! I think it's worth a weekends priced ticket even.

A Letter to Santa

2009-12-24T10:23:00.001+08:00

Dear Santa,

Merry Xmas to you! It's been awhile since we last spoke. December has once again arrived and I can't stop myself writing this to you. I've been ( and hopefully you think too ) a good kid this year. So, I'm really and truely hoping you would fulfill the following wishes of mine.

1. For my mom - could you pls send her a pack of magical pills that could make her stay with us for as long as her body and soul allows.

2. for my brother - he could use a bottle of potion that would pull him out of guilts and erase away the unhappy thoughts. Pls throw in a lucky charm if you're feeling generous cuz he needs a load of those.

3. For the love of my life Santa - could I ask for unwavering love to live in our hearts for the rest of our lives and only allow joy and happiness to be our guest.

4. For those who I treature the most as my dear friends - could they stay close to my heart. Pls take care of them, send them your love and direct them to the magical way to achieve what they wish for in life.

5. For myself - I don't wish for fancy car, a house or cash. What I really want the most is the gift of wisdom.

- Wisdom of knowing what's right or wrong,

- wisdom of deciding the path to walk in life,

- wisdom of solving any problem that would come in this journey of life,

- wisdom of knowing giving is better than receiving,

- wisdom to know when to grow-up,

- wisdom to know it's not worth crying over spilled milk,

- most importantly, wisdom to control the strong emotional catastrophes.

I know it's a looong list. But pls don't discard this Santa cuz I love you and if u do, it'd hurt me.

Here's wishing you all Merry Xmas and Super Fabulous 2010!!

Xoxo,

Me

A Christmas Carol & A Birthday Note

2009-11-27T14:57:00.005+08:00

**Disclaimer: I've started this post almost a month ago but it was sitting in my draft for that period of time without getting published. Since it was a special event I had with my girls, I shall continue to post this outdated post.**

It was a sweet November for all of us. By all of us, I meant, myself, my besties K & N as well as our all time favourite big sis A and the crazy partner of hers.

In attempt to surprise our lovely girl N for her 26th birthday, I came up with the grand plan. The plan was to bring her out to a date and leave her thinking it's just me and her. The rest of the group will show up quietly from somewhere so that we could have a nice dinner together. The best part of the plan was to bring her to a movie, better still, a GOLD CLASS movie.

I knew this is going to a great experience, not only for her but for all of us. None of us has experienced the Gold Class movie before, simply because the tickets themselves were too pricey and there will be additional costs to the refreshments you most likely want to order to enjoy the movie with something to chew/sip on.

But, immediately after I've suggested this plan, K and A agreed to the plan with a lot of excitements. The reason why I've suggested this was because our dear birthday girl N is a movie buff. You could tell from this post she posted on her blog. So, everyone agreed that bringing her to a special movie experience sounds like a plan!

Being a GOLD CLASS cinema, they didn't have a whole range of movies to choose from but instead only selected movies made it to the Gold Class. We were given only limited choices at that point of time. Out of which, N has already watched most of them. So, that left us to somewhat a new Christmas Theme Movie - A Christmas Carol.

Here's the movie detail:
Name - A Christmas Carol
Genre - Animation, Drama, Family
Director - Robert Zemeckis
Main Cast - Jim Carrey
Running Time - 85 Mins

Frankly speaking, I didn't have a lot of things to talk about the movie because sadly I thought it wasn't that fantastic afterall. It was one draggy with little-to-no-interesting-scene movie. Although the running time was 1 hour and 35 mins, it felt like forever to finish the movie. Kids in the cinema didn't enjoy this as well, we even witnessed the parents waking their kids up after the end of movie.

We had fun taking picture with the pro cam, having coffee and chicken wraps at the Pacific Coffee Shop, having dinner at Thai Restaurant and a movie at GV Vivo city. The bottom line is, everything happened on that day was GREAT except the movie itself. Although all of us admit that GOLD CLASS experience is what made the day most memorable and it is one b'day celeberation we will never forget.

And, here's to the Birthday Girl!

Book Review: My Best Friend's Girl by Dorothy Koomson

2009-11-27T14:00:00.005+08:00

A friend of mine S who has the common interest as me, and I love going to the book stores together, get lost in the isles and isles of books, in search for a few we wanted to read. They seem to me like how the delicious cupcakes seem to be for a cupcake lover. No, I'm not exaggerating. I'd rather read a book at home then going out for shopping, not because I'm a nerd who doesn't do shopping, just because reading is like my favorite past time activity.

S has gotten hold of this book, which is why I borrowed it from her and hence the review. My first read from this Author Dorothy Koomson and the first book I've read from a black author who grew up in London and in Leeds. This explains why the lead character in the book is black and the book covers a great deal about Leeds.

I'll try writing this review without revealing the interesting plots in the book. The power of a good writing lies in making a simple story utterly interesting and getting the readers feel the same way as you wanted them to. In this book, DK was able to do that. The story revolves around 2 best friends who grew up together in the most years of their lives until someone came along and something happened. I'm not going to tell you how, but the one thing I must say is that the small girl in the book is one who will make you go 'Aww.. she's so cute', at least she got me a few times. This book is packed with emotions pertaining to love, hate, betrayal, sense of responsibility, friendship and many more. It sure is worth the while for your reading time.

Reading a good book like this usually inspires me to read more. It's never enough. The next time I step into the bookstore, I will be looking out for more books from DK.

Movie Review: Spread

2009-11-05T00:11:00.003+08:00

As much as I hate Mondays, I always have a reason to look forward to my Tuesdays. It's becoming a ritual for me and my 2 other girls to catch up for a movie on Tuesday nights. So, this movie was just another movie date with them. I was fairly surprised when I found out that one of the girls wants to watch this movie, given the fact that this movie isn't going to be a gruesome and violent type to be rated as R21. So, there could only be one other reason why this is the case. Hmmm. Of course it's adult related. Blame it on our sweet, young looks, the moment we set our foots at the line to hand in the tickets to get into the cinema, we were asked to flash our ICs. Feels good to be looking young but it's kinda embarrassing when other people in line start to check us out.

The story revolves around this guy named Nikki (played by Ashton Kutcher). He's not only a homeless but also a jobless person and the look and charm are all he possess in life. A womanizer who works his way through to say in a big house, charge on their credit card and drive their Mercedes or Porsche just like his own. Gigolo isn't enough term for Nikki, but rather, he's much more than that. All he has to do is to satisfy woman who has money and life's all good for him.

This only made it to 2 stars for me because it's just a simple story, and it's a cheap flick except for the fact that they use Ashton as the actor, which I'm sure has cost the producer of the movie a good amount of money. It's somewhat predictable in the sense that this gigolo who makes his living out of cheating women ended up learning how meaningful love is to him. And, there are many other things in life that's much more important and earning money in a easy but the wrong way is not the way to live your life. That's the message they are trying to send across.

At the end of the show, I did realize that it's a good thing they check ICs at the entrance. It's definitely not for young kids. Sexual scenes are rather explicit. And oh, I have to mention this, the last scene of the movie was kinda disgusting. You can go watch it and tell me what do you think of that last scene.

Afterward, we headed out for dinner at the restaurant nearby and had our fulfilling meal topped with taking lots of pictures. It was a fun night, although we were not very much happy with one of the staffs at the restaurant who serves our food with zero level of customer service orientation. We should even look at sending in feedback for that particular girl. Oh well, anyways, this was somehow compensated with another staff who is a complete opposite of her. So, we will just let that slide this time. =)

Book Review: The Nanny Diaries by Nicola Kraus and Emma McLaughlin

2009-11-01T19:50:00.005+08:00

It's interesting, whenever I feel an itch of reading a book, I'd somehow get an idea given to me somewhere somehow. Okay, I will explain to you if this is quite confusing. While I was reading the Chasing Harry Winston, one of the characters in the book 'Leigh Eisner' was reading this book in bed and was mentioning to the guy that she loves this book. So, I thought this must have been a nice & famous book and which is why it has been turned into a major motion picture in 2007 acted by Scarlett Johansson, which I've watched and liked it. Since then, my curiosity kicked in, wanting to find out how the book be different from the movie. Although only a good 10% of the movie has left in my memory, as I read the book, I managed to visualize what have happened in the movie.

It's a good book but I found out something interesting as I read it. As far as my past reading experience is concerned, I concluded that any book that is co-produce by one or more authors is likely to be less interesting and readable than the single author books. Why I'm saying this is because as the two individual authors, they have their unique writing styles and they have their way of presenting what they have in mind to the readers. When there are more than one authors involved, the book seems to lack consistency in one way or another, although I can't really point out which, but I could feel it. At some point in the book, I lost track of who's talking which line. That's how I keep loosing my interest in continue reading this book. It's very unusual for me to leave the book unfinished at any given point of my free time nor to prolong the reading time to finish a book. Usually, I'd be hooked on to the book and sometimes, lose my sleep over a good book. This book didn't do that for me. Which is why I'm giving a 2 stars rating for the book.

Go have a read if you're free, the kid in the book was really quite cute and you could feel the love-hate relationship between the little boy and his nanny.

Movie Review: Love Happens

2009-11-01T18:52:00.003+08:00

Okay, this movie cost me a half day off from work, 6 bucks for the movie tix and 17 bucks for the lunch at Dome. Why? Because, a few of my close girls from office and I took leave together, planned on enjoying a high tea at Canosour Restaurant at Royal Plaza Hotel on Scott Road, Orchard. BUT, our dear A who is supposed to be the event organizer gotten the info wrong about the timing. We left office at around 1pm, thinking that the high tea buffet starts at 2pm. But in actual fact, the buffet only starts at 3:30pm, we only got to know this after 4 hungry stomachs reached at the place all ready to eat and were highly disappointed. So, we have changed our high tea buffet plan to a quick lunch followed by a movie. It was the opening day of this movie and the whole theater was fulled of 2ndary school kids. I have no idea what they were doing there at that odd timing of the day about 3pm. Don't they have homework to do? *shaking head like an adult*

It a love story between a famous book author (Aaron Eckhart as Burke) who has been hiding the true past of his life and a simple life leading florist (Jennifer Aniston as Eloise). I could never really recall watching a single movie done by Aaron or rather, he's never really left me any impression on my memory even if I did watch his movies before. But always been a fan of Jennifer although she doesn't really get listed in my favourite actress. Aha. It's not that easy to be listed in my fav list, you see. Ahemm.

A simple story which is very much predictable on what will happen next. The acting skills for all other casts besides Jennifer (of course), are just a so-so. This definitely isn't worth paying more than $5, which I sadly did. Not that I've regretted watching it with the girls. I really enjoyed that evening. But not the movie. In the middle of the show, it gets real draggy, to a point that I get to hear very deep breathings beside me that's when I realize my friend S has fallen asleep in the middle of the show.

I'm giving it 2 stars. But if you really must watch this movie cuz you're a fan of Jen, I'd want to encourage you to wait till DVDs are out and just rent it at lower cost, even better, share it with your friends for a even lower cost as well.

Movie Review: Julie & Julia

2009-11-01T18:29:00.004+08:00

Watched this movie with my 2 best girls. We love to do this ( a movie night out ) and we are going to do this again next week. After contemplating enough between the 500 Days of Summer and this Julie and Julia, we have decided on this. And so, here goes my review.

The story is based on 2 different stories in 2 different times. 2 true stories it said. Julia Child played by Meryl Streep and Julie Powell played by Amy Adams. It's just happened that I've recently watched one of the Amy Adams movie 'Sunshine Cleaning'. Anyway, this is just a side track. Aha. Julia Child got married to a really nice man and followed him to France and fall in love with the place as well as the food. She does look huge in this movie by the way. Being a housewife, nothing special what so ever to do, she started picking up cooking and produced a cook book. This book then became a hit and hence Julie Powell, an office worker who is insignificant and not satisfied with her life, challenged herself on trying out all the receipes on Julia's cookbook and managed to obtained the sense of achievement that she's always wanted.

See? It is just 2 simple stories cuz they are based on the true story. What we've learnt from this movie is how important for us ladies to be able to get married to such a nice man who is very much loving and supportive just as Julia did. Haha.

Besides the storyline. It gets kinda annoying after looking at Meryl Streep's non-stop laughing and numerous 'Bonjour's and Bonjour-liked french words throughout the movie. It was adoring at first but I kinda got over-dosed on this. So, there goes a 2 star rating for this movie since I didn't enjoy it as much.

Reflections on Hen Party

2009-10-17T12:53:00.006+08:00

I woke up to a nice Saturday afternoon today. I was up late last night throwing a hen party for one of my girls at work. It was fun hanging out with them for dinner and drink coupled with surprising the bride-to-be with the gift and the game we played, Truth or Dare.

These events are exactly the time where you get to know them better as we forget about work and just chat about our personal lives. You’d feel closer to them and of course that’s when the bonds begin. I’ve always felt comfortable around my females colleagues at work, mostly they are very nice people and that they’d open up to you about their genuine feelings and I’d return exactly the same. Some said that colleagues can never be turned to friends but I beg to differ. I could call most of my female colleagues as my close friends.

Through the Truth or Dare game, I set myself thinking about what we have been through as a couple – i.e., my boyfriend and I. It’s been 8 years now. When it was my turn to choose from the truth or a dare, I choose the truth since I know I’ve nothing I want to hide from the girls I feel closest to at that moment. They asked me if there’s any moment in my life where my boyfriend has done the most heartbreaking thing to me. And, you know what, this is not to brag about how lucky I was to have a man who loves me, nothing came to my mind to answer that question. As every other couple, we did have our ups and downs and the crazy time where I think I could just move on in my life without him. But these thoughts vanish as I reflect on how much we love each other. There’s always been more goods than bads if I were to balance it out. And none of us had done anything that is unforgivable to each other. I’m not so much of a perfect girlfriend either and I do not expect him to be the perfect one for me too. It’s all just boiled down to how much you care about each other and how do you see yourself spending the rest of your life with him for better or for worse.

I don’t know why these deep thoughts have been running through my mind these days. I’m obviously feeling older as time passes.

By the way, I am so happy for Y who’s getting married next Sunday. May your marriage be filled with blissful memories and have a wonderful lifelong journey ahead with your hubby. Congratulations!

Movie Review: The Ugly Truth

2009-10-10T21:30:00.001+08:00

The last few movies I've watched for Gerard Butler were adventurous, rough and action packed like Gamer, 300 and Nim's Island. Didn't know he does romance movies too. But, Katherine Heigl, I know is a great natural. Watched a few great movies like 27 Dresses, Knocked Up and not forgetting the Grey's Anotomy TV series too.

This movie has been up in the cinema for awhile but I didn't have time and gotten the right company to go watch it until last friday. Two of my girls and I went for the evening show after work and we all had fun watching it followed by a Chinese dinner.

I knew this movie was a good one from a few other who have watched it. And I witnessed it for myself and I've given it a 3 and a half stars for the good laughs throughout the show and it sure did earned it. It looks a little like a 'He's not that into you' movie when Mike (Gerard Butler) teaches and shares the tips on the relationships in terms of a guy's point of view.

Anyone younger than 18 shouldn't be watching this movie because there are a lot of adult jokes involved and only people with the adult mindset would possibly understand most of the jokes. This was way better than 'Funny People'.

Real Life Blownup Doll

2009-10-10T14:12:00.000+08:00

As much as I want my carefree, stress-less and innocent childhood back, I don't exactly hate being an adult with full of responsibilities for family, friends and especially for career. I mean who doesn't want a life that is away from all the worries and best scenario - if you don't have to work for money. Sometimes, some things just can't be helped. Therefore, I work at an office and hence I'm sharing this story happened at work with you.

And of course, I don't have any particular intention to insult anyone. But, this is just too funny not to be mentioned. I am seriously hoping, those colleagues involved in this story won't see my blog with this post.

I'm surrounded with many funny, nice, weird, caring or loud people at work. And I take all the weirdness as a pinch of salt and I don't take anything to heart. I treat all of them as nice as I could so that my working at this environment would be pleasant.

First of all, before sharing the story below. Just a little background info on the colleagues that I'm going to talk about.

W - He is a guy who is very witty, funny and always crack jokes with us.
A - She is a girl with a thin body, no matter how much she eats, she will never grow fat, a problem I wouldn't mind having. She's nice and helpful, everyone in the office loves her.

Okay, W and A are the main cast in this story. Both W and A are married and one with kid, therefore, the conversation below is nothing serious or flirtatious intention to each other. Just take it as a pinch of salt, like me, okay? And here goes the story and the conversations between W and A via email.

W has been visiting this psychiatrist who is helping with his issue regarding the short span of attention. But that psychiatrist he was seeing was recently charged and imprisoned. Real story it is, being featured in the newspaper here too. Therefore, the following email was sent to him.

-----------

From: XXX [mailto:xxxx@jcu.edu.sg]
Sent: Tuesday, October 06, 2009 10:14 AM
To: xxx
Cc: xxx
Subject: Appointment at the Psychology Clinic

Dear W

Our records show that you are currently a client of our Psychology Clinic and that you have been seeing trainee clinical psychologist Chong Weien.

Unfortunately we have recently discovered that Mr. Chong was convicted, and subsequently imprisoned, in 2002 of outraging the modesty of a teenager. As a result, Mr. Chong has been suspended from our postgraduate professional course in clinical psychology while a review of his suitability to continue in the course is undertaken.

Your case will be re-assigned to another trainee clinical psychologist who will contact you to make your next appointment.

My apologizes for any inconvenience.

Yours sincerely
xxxx
*******************************************************************************
Professor xxxx
Department of Psychology
James Cook University
600 Upper Thomson Road
Singapore 574421

Tel: +xxx
Fax: +xxx
Hp: +xxxx
Web: www.jcu.edu.sg

----------------

W: I am such a loser that my psychiatrist has been convicted of outraging someone’s modesty.

A: HAHAHA….. Nevermind, just make sure your next psychiatrist is not a serial butt molester.

Me: W, you should go for the real one instead of an inexperienced trainee.

Other Colleague: Yah I think u must test first... bring a playboy to ur next psychiatrist visit.....

A: Or maybe bring a blown up doll with you…

W: A, Are you free then?

A: You say already.. I got nothing to molest! Even the blownup doll may be a better prospect than me with the right curves.

W: You wear more layers can? And keep your mouth open. Cannot tell the doll from you apart la.

Me: OMG… this is ultimate!! Hahahaha…

W: On normal days, she’s quite deflated.

A: IDIOT, IDIOT, IDIOT W!

W: You’re so sexy my latex friend!

A: I will make sure the acupuncture you go to, will make your chest grow with flying colours!

W: Then you must also join me sister. You need to make your chest grow in flying colors too!

A: I am going to kill W today! And nobody can stop me from doing it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

W: When you try to kill me, I will pull out the plug from you and you will deflate like nobody’s business. And you will fly around like a balloon on the 14th floor.

A: ……………. Ok, you win!

W: Having said all that, A we love you!!!! You’re the best blow up doll ever!!

-----------

Hahaha! you don't hear this everyday at work. But this sure could make my day at work brighter with the laughter around us.

Power Of Hug

2009-10-07T11:50:00.001+08:00

Have you ever had too much from a lousy day that all you wanted was a nice warm comforting hug from someone you’re close to and you know that person cares about you? Okay, let’s look at this in the perspective of a genuine caring hug regardless of age, gender, colour and the status. Not necessarily someone whom you’re dating with or your spouse, it could well be a family member a friend or a relative.

Hugs can be very subjective and have different levels of causality and affectionate intimacy. Ranging from a casual greeting handshake hug to a friendship embrace to a passionate one you give to your lover. See? It’s not as cheesy as it sounds.

I’m not a very good hugger. I feel awkward hugging someone especially when they are not that close to me. Partly because hugs are not openly practiced in Asian culture. I could count using my fingers for the number of time I hugged my mom without finishing all 10 of them. I received hugs from my female friends on my birthday and I gave hugs to female colleagues on their birthdays or on their farewell, etc. We just don’t hug on normal occation.

Last Friday was one memorable day for me. With 5 over years with the job, I considered myself a veteran and I seldom get into a problem regarding work. Most of the days are stressfree but busy ones for me. But on Friday, something went wrong and I felt terrible for my stupid mistake. And I don’t take mistakes very lightly, when that happens I will have a hard time getting my mind off it. It was Friday and I foresaw that I’m going to have bad weekends too and I did. I don’t know if you have experience that, it’s the feeling of a pitch in your stomach, you sleep with it and wake up with it in the morning continuing the thoughts you cut off before your sleep. It’s not quite a panic, but stress.

My boyfriend (C as his initial) and I went for a movie on Friday night and obviously for what happened on that day, I couldn’t enjoy that movie to the fullest. As I was bragging to him about what happened on the day while having our quick bite at the fast food chain, he listened attentively gave me some pointers and his view. I must have really looked terrible cuz thereafter, he gave me a hug. A hug that was so consoling and I could immediately feel comfort in me. I really did appreciate that, not just a hug but the care and concern behind the hug that I could sense, especially in time of need for one.

Movie Review: Surrogates

2009-10-04T00:03:00.000+08:00

This one of a kind movie drew my attention when I first saw the trailer not long ago. It involves robots that are remotely controlled by the humans, i.e., making robots to get the things done when you are comfortably lying on your comfy chair. It sounds like a real good life. The feature to which the robots of your choice could be in a form of anything, male/female in their thin curvy lines or muscular toned bodies. The movie came up with these catchy images that could instantly draw anyone's attention as well.

It's a sci-fi movie based on the technology of making 'surrogate' for each individual in the city, for the purpose of making them work in your place, whether you are a clerk who works at a company or a soldier who is about to go on a war. As usual, it's the future inspired movie where you get to watch those highly sophisticated technologies, their pros and cons, the followers and the haters, etc. The surrogates in this movies are the human-like robots that are the refined version of the actual individual (human) who is controlling his surrogate to live in the society on behalf of himself as every other human beings. The guy sitting at home taking the control of his 'surrogate' robot obviously could be 50 years old, fat guy with very few hair and weighing 250kg while his 'surrogate' looks like his 25 year old self in masculine toned body with flawless angelic face. So, you get the picture. Everyone looks perfect in this movie. Starring by Bruce Willis as Tom Greer. Here, you get to see his actual self (human) and his surrogate - his 30 years old self with the cool side-parting blonde hair and toner body. Aha. The same goes for almost all other casts.

So, while you're watching this, you will notice that ALL the surrogates (be it lady or man), they are all very good looking with the extra smooth skin and super glowing complexion. How I wish I could have one myself. Who doesn't want to look better when you're given a chance to?

Enough about the people and the surrogates, the movie has a little twist and was able to keep me interested throughout. The scenes of making them and fixing them took the cake. So, I believe it deserves a better rating then 2.5 stars according to the newspaper. In my opinion, it's worth a 4 stars. Bruce Willis has done a good job, so, he should earn it.

Movie Review: Fame

2009-10-02T22:40:00.000+08:00

Watched it a couple of days ago with my Bestie K. Ok, I've gotten a little lazier these days, and older a little, cuz I just couldn't bring myself to start updating the blog after a long day at work. So, just ended up in curling up in the bed after a good cool shower. During the movie, I was already thinking of writing about it once I get back home, but obviously it didn't happen.

It started with a bunch of high school kids enrolling into the New York Academy of Performing Arts (they use the term: PAs) where they get to study singing, acting, dancing, playing musical instruments and many more. From the not-so-good students to the teacher's favourite students in each classes, the good, the bad and the unfortunate ones, the movie depicts the in the school and off the school lives of the students. The one message the movie is trying to send across is that, while being famous is good, there's nothing wrong with wanting the 'fame' in life, there are many life lessons to which the students were not possibly aware of and that this PAs school would give them specialized lessons on music and arts to groom them into the future's shinning stars.

This movie was listed out of my want-to-watch list because I thought it's just another musical movie where the casts sing and dance from the minute the movie gets started till the end. But I realised that I was horribly wrong after 15mins into the movie. The kids are good at everything, no matter if it's about singing, dancing or piano. They do this with so much energy that people who are watching could actually feel them. The girls in the show dance so beautifully and very briskly.

My highlight for me from this show is the dancing. The dancing scene made me have those moment of goosebumps and the chill down your spine with the breathtaking performance. This girl (Kherington Payne) is a real dancer, and I had no idea that she was one of the participants in 'So You Think You Can Dance' TV show.

Asher Book sings very well too. One of those who possesses a soulful voice that warms people's heart and he sings slow songs like this. Bestie K shared this on FB. Have a listen and enjoy!

Movie Review: Whiteout

2009-09-23T23:22:00.000+08:00

Watched this movie last night and liked it for its ability to constantly keep me up the verge of the seat. It's thrilling and mysterious.

Read the full Synopsis from IMDB here.

Cast wise, in my opinion, Kate Beckinsale looks slightly different from the way she looked in her recent movies of Underworlds. Particularly it might be because she's wearing a bob wig throughout the show. Although it might not be too obvious for some to notice, I reconed it was a wig from the first scene she came into view. There's always something about the wigs that tell you to notice them whenever you see them.

I'm going to give some credits for the crews in making this movie because it would definitely not be easy shooting in such a strong weather although some of the scenes are taken in the studio. Sub zero temperature is not a joke.

ၤFor your reading pleasure, if you have some time, go read this site for an interview with Kate Beckinsale and the lead actor Gabriel Macht.

Fitness Frenzy

2009-09-21T23:36:00.001+08:00

Since Feb 2008, I became a member among more than 100,000 others of True Fitness Center (Previously known as Planet Fitness). I wouldn't say I'm proud of becoming one for many reasons.

Frankly speaking, Fitness - to me - is just another term for a weight loss, a pathway to a new prettier, slimmer, Me. I could not care less in cardiovascular fitness, higher endurance, better flexibility, muscular strength and higher bone marrow density. Forget about all these fanciful health talk and gymnastic terms, all I want when I go to the gym is to lose weight, as simple as that! I know I'm not making any sense if you want to argue using an Oxford Dictionary but seriously, that's my point of view.

I was with full of enthusiasm when I first signed on the gym membership application form, didn't even mind paying for it cuz I knew that is going to be a great decision and in my mind I was planning to go to the gym every alternate days after work. It's kinda like a small bubble forming above my head, all pleased with myself, big smile on my face and walked out of the gym after exploring its extent with the fitness center representative who helped me with the application process.

First few months after the registration, I kept my promise to myself to religiously hitting the gym every other day after work, some days joining the different fitness classes by the trainer like Body Pump, Yoga, Steps and many more, and other days doing the simple jogging on the treadmill. It was easier to make it possible when the gym is right below my office - i.e., at the basement of the office I work in. However, from 3-4 times a week to 1-2 times a week, the frequency has since been reducing and now, it's become 'as-and-when-I-feel-like'. Aha! It's party because I've gotten a little lazy and the gym is now slightly further away since we moved to a new location, but mainly because I dread having to avoid the personal trainers in the gym who are always eying on the gym members like their preys to sell the personal training sessions. Personal trainings are not part of the membership, you have to pay to get one and mind you, it doesn't come cheap.

The more you look new and unfamiliar with the machines, or using the machines in the incorrect stance, these supposedly friendly trainers will come approach you to have a little chat with you followed by the selling session. As a polite and civilized person, I hate having to say 'no' all the time. Call me anti-social, I do not like talking to strangers especially when I know what he/she is up to when they come approach me with a friendly and helpful smile on their faces. So, on most of the occasions, I have to avoid having eye contact with these people when I'm working out. They won't even let you off if you're minding your own business and running on the treadmill. They could come to you and told you that your posture of running is incorrect with heavy stamping on the sole, this again leads you to get the personal training session by them. I had encountered it once not long after the membership's started it was negligible since it's the first time, but now, it has become bad to worse. Things have changed after True yoga took over Planet, one could see a lot of more trainers loitering around the gym and at least one of them would come and talk to you as long as you look not-so-busy having your time cycling while reading or doing some cooling-downs after the workout.

Hunting in the gym wasn't enough, they do tele-marketing which I had to repeatedly say no and request to remove my contact number from the call list. Apparently, they don't listen. They use many different numbers so I couldn't actually make my phone remember their numbers, instead I had to take the bet on picking up calls from strange numbers. After many refusals, they finally got the idea that I'm not interested, so they have stopped calling.

Not long after peaceful break of no calls from the gym, I just received another form of selling in the handphone, this time, via SMS. They now use a new tactic of advertising. A trainer using his/her personal cell phone to text the members on the latest promotions and stuffs. They didn't ask me whether I'm okay to receive the promotional communications when I first signed the form. There's no checkbox or whatsoever that I could opt myself out of the promo and newsletters. Even the simple online reg forms have them and the user has the right to opt out. This has really becoming very irritating and I simply am agitated with all these harrasments and this last SMS was the final straw for me. I'm so NOT going to extend the membership when it ends in about 4 mnths time.

I have not achieved my goal for losing weight but instead I gained tele-harassments and a supposedly privileged membership that doesn't feel like a privilege at all. No fitness attained for my physical structure but as a matter of fact, my wallet has gotten some fitness itself. And quite obvious, the small bubble that was formed a year ago has been burst.

Singtel Never Fail...

2009-09-19T23:25:00.000+08:00

It's been awhile since I've decided to switch from M1 to Singtel, purely because I wanted an Iphone. Nothing new these days I guess. People switch for the sake of Iphone and what they get back in return was a gorgeous Iphone and dire disappointment with service from Singtel.

I'm definitely not the spokesperson for any service provider but I was a happy customer of M1 for close to 5 years now. It's only 2 months ago that I started to have the itch of getting an iph myself when I see Most of the people around me were using it, looking all cool and satisfied with all the fanciful games and applications. This basically results to subscribing for a new line with a total new number - which was the case because I just couldn't wait till my M1 contract is over to port the number over to Singtel. This was only one of my sacrifices I made to get myself an iph.

When I first contacted the person (let's call her - Ms.One since I'm going to refer to many more person later on) in charge for corp line to inquire for an iph, she told me that iph is not officially launched but will let me know when it's being confirmed. But, I have not heard from her until I heard from someone else that the new iph 3GS has been launched. Promise 1 - broken.

Another thing about Ms.One is that you could never call her. No matter what time of the day you called, she will be perpetually engaged with another customer (at least that's what her voice mail told us). This left us with only 1 way to communicate with her - i.e., Email. She does not reply emails with many lines in it - i.e., any complicated query whatsoever. So, I had to always make sure that I send her a one liner cuz no matter how long I wrote, she'd only reply for the easy one anyway. First Impression - bad.

I started to contact her again once the iph 3GS was out and she's all good sending me an application forms to fill up and fax to her, given me a list of numbers to choose from for the new line and told me that she will let me know when they've confirmed on the delivery date. My happiness level then - 80%, all hopeful to get an iph soon.

2 Weeks later, still no news from Ms.One and it has taken longer than expected, so, other colleague of mine who also ordered the exact same iph with me found out on her own that the contact person has been changed to Mr.Two without any updates to those of us who still attempting to get hold of Ms.One who is no where can be found. Another service delivered badly.

So, we kept in touch with Mr.Two who seems to pick up his call unless he really is on the line with another customer. He again gave us another answer to wait for another 2-4 weeks for the iph because Apple wasn't able to meet the high demand across Asia and that it was actually affecting all other countries as well. My happiness level then - 30%, all the hopes being crushed.

When it's close to 2 months of waiting, Mr.Three called me to say that my iph will arrive on the next day (that was Friday). It indeed arrives on Friday, but, they have mixed up with my payment mode and stupidly enough, the delivery guy couldn't leave the phone with me until the proper changes has been made to the PO and receipt, so, he went off with my iph with the promise from Mr.Three that they have overlooked on my payment method and that they will definitely deliver the iph on the later time of the same day. My happiness level then - 0%, for having to have the shining new toy that I have waited for so long has just slipped through my finger because they have sat on my request to change in payment mode for 11 days.

A few hours later the delivery guy has left, I received an email (not a call) from Mr.Four that I will actually be receiving the phone on Monday instead. I returned his email with a stinking message to say how bad their service was and that Mr.Three has promised me to deliver the phone on the same day, etc. Few minutes after I sent the email, Mr.Three called me to apologize for overlooking the request and that there's nothing else they could do about it. I slammed down the phone without saying 'bye' - I know it's a rude gesture but I don't even care anymore.

I'm naturally quite a tolerant person, but what Singtel has done to me for this whole Iphone application made me fuming mad with anger and frustration. Is that how they treasure their customers? What's with the customer service these days? Whatever happen to keeping the customers always happy? I simply wasn't expecting such a service from a big organization like Singtel.

So, there you go. Singtel never fail to disappoint me.

Book Review: Chasing Harry Winston by Lauren Weisberger

2009-09-19T21:47:00.002+08:00

Firstly, when I got hold of this book, I didn't know who, or rather what is Harry Winston. My first thought was that it's about attempting to marry a rich guy named Harry Winston. Blame it on my lack of knowledge upon Fashion and Jeweleries, I now know that Harry Winston was named after an American Jeweler who donated the Hope Diamond to the Smithsonian Institution in 1958 after owning it for a decade, and traded the Portuguese Diamond to the Smithsonian in 1963. [Ref: Wiki]

So, now you know this book is not about marrying this Jeweler. It's about 3 best friends (Notice the 3 diamond rings on the cover?) who has totally different character from one another. The story lies in their lives and their vows to materializing their agreed pact.

I particularly love this book - although it's just another chick lit and there really isn't much of the plot in it - because reading about 3 different girls' life also mean that I get to touch on different types of characters that I'm certain do exist in real life.

It's not easy to set forth many different characters in the book cuz if it's not written properly, the readers could get lost between the chapters. This book is my first read from the author - Lauren Weisberger but she totally got me interested in the book. She manage to pour in the right amount of story for each character.

Here's a little teaser (word to word from the book itself.) for you:

1. Emmy Solomon (Just broke up with her boyfriend of 5 years named Duncan)
Emmy knew her sister and friends hated Duncan for putting her through the wringer; their disapproval was palpable and, after the first year, very vocal. But what they didn't understand, couldn't possibly understand, was the feeling she got when his eyes found hers at a crowded party. or when he invited her into the shower and scrubbed her with cucumber-scented sea salt, or got into the cab first so she wouldn't have to slide across the backseat, or knew to order her tuna rolls with spicy sauce but without crunch.

2. Leigh Eisner (Has the best boyfriend on earth)
Naturally, she was honored by the attention; Who wouldn't want Russell Perrin pursuing her? He fulfilled every single little box on every single checklist she'd drafted in the last ten years. He was, by all accounts, exactly the kind of man she hoped to find but never actually thought she would. Now, there she was, almost a year into a relationship with a gorgeous guy who also just happened to be sensitive, kind, caring, and madly in love with her, and all she felt was smothered. It was abundantly obvious to everyone else in Leigh's life that she had finally met The One; why wasn't it clearer to her?

3. Andriana De Souza (A Hot Brazilian girl who has a killer body, a daughter of famous Model)
"Friendly, outgoing, engaging, charming, whatever you want to call it, it still translates into 'available and desperate' when you're the one who initiates contact.'"
It was boring, it was so obvious. Why didn't American women understand this? Why weren't they taught it? The Rules had helped a little but hadn't done nearly enough; it instructed women how to deny men, but not how to seduce them. If she hadn't actually witnessed it herself over the last ten years, she never would have believed there existed grown women who thought the way to get a man was to chase him.

I think that's about enough to tell you who the 3 friends are and their current state of life. Happy reading!

Movie Review: Funny People

2009-09-15T20:05:00.000+08:00

Firstly, I didn't spend a single penny on this one because it was the company event, the tickets come free. Secondly, If I did, I'd be the most regretful person in the world for paying 7 bucks for such a movie.

I am a fan of Adam Sandler and have enjoyed watching many of his great movies such as 50 First Dates, I now pronounce you Chuck & Larry, The Longest Yard, Mr. Deeds, Big Daddy and many more. But this one? It was such a disappointment. I don't know if any other fans of Adam's would agree with me but I definitely did NOT like this movie of his.

It was one comedy movie just because it was being labeled as such. It wasn't funny because of the over using of jokes on human's private parts. And they aren't really THAT funny. It was supposed to be a tad touching since it's about a dying stand-up comedian (Adam as George Simmons) and how he spent 'supposedly' last few days or months of his life after he found out that he has a type of Leukemia disease called AML. But it didn't manage to obtain audiences sympathy as much as it should, except for a few scenes that capture Adam's sorrowful act every now and then.

You might learn things like, how you should be spending this precious time of yours in this life with people who care for you and not neglect them. Other than that, it's pretty shallow. Just rent a DVD to watch it a month later. Don't bother wasting your $ on the movie tickets.

Read more about this movie here.

Movie Review: Gamer

2009-09-13T22:41:00.001+08:00

Another movie acted by Gerard Butler (His other recent movies: The Ugly Truth, Nim's Island, 300). Can you tell from the title of the movie and the poster above that, it's about gaming and that there's a small boy's face underneath the rough man's face? It's basically all about science and high technology beyond imagination. People are being controlled by their 'gamer' and they had no self-control, therefore the actions they take are purely based on the person who is controlling them a.k.a playing them. It can be very much heart wrenching because you'll see many innocent people being killed and being forced to do what they don't enjoy doing.

I'm giving this movie a bad rating of 2 stars because it failed to explain the audience on how this whole thing has come about and the ways in which the big organization that invented this gaming software, abducted those people and replace their brain cells with the nanochips that makes them logged into the game. The process of these are not shown and were replaced by a 'slide-show' like explanations. The whole movie is very fast paced and most of the scenes are guns, shootings and more shootings.

Find out more about Gamer here. You may go watch it if you must and prepared to be quite disappointed cuz to me, it's just another 'okay~' movie. Don't say I didn't warn you! =) I'd rather save that dime for another better one.

My First Tiffany

2009-09-12T19:48:00.000+08:00

Tiffany & Co., I've heard about it, I've read about it, today, I received my first Tiffany. You might be wondering 'what' from Tiffany. Well, it's not a ring of course, not a bracelet or rather, not even diamond related. It's a little something from Tiffany & Co. that I received today from the big boss of the company I work in.

On 17th May 2009, I've reached my 5th career year with the bank. And it's just felt like a little more than a couple of years. Time passed by so fast that I didn't realize I'm getting older along with the years that has just passed swiftly. The first day I walked in for a 4 months internship, I simply didn't know I'd be working here for this long, neither did I imagine that this is going to be the first job I'd land into because it's just too great of a job that I didn't think I could make it.

Today, everyone in the office was lighthearted. While some receive flowers and a note to thank them, others receive their little sweet treats from their bosses. It's an official 'Appreciation Day' which is the day the bosses take a step forward to show their appreciation towards their staffs, as well as the staffs to their peers. It really is a beautiful Friday and I had my fair share of happiness in receiving a personal appreciation note from the big boss written on an elegant white flowery card, a lovely balloon and a star curved crystal bowl in a white ribbon-wrapped giftbox from Tiffany.

Franky, I am not sure of ways to putting this crystal bowl into a good use but what I'm most certainly sure is that I'd treasure it and it will take a most important space in my living room to remind me of the wonderful 5 years of my career life.

Movie Review: G-Force

2009-09-09T23:24:00.000+08:00

Another movie by Walt Disney consisting of the human and animated animals - 3 cute Guinea pigs and various others taking on a mission for US Government. Read more about G-force story here. It's Disney's movie, so it can't be bad since they always have their movies standard up to their name.

The guinea pigs are definitely cute but I hate to say this, as compared to the movie 'Up', this movie has to be rated lower than that.

The 3 stars here goes to the cute guinea pigs, touching and some funny moments in the show.

Movie Review: Year One

2009-09-04T23:57:00.000+08:00

The trailer pretty much tells you everything about this movie. This movie is too shallow that I can't make myself giving it even a 2 stars. It IS funny, definitely it HAS to cuz it's starred by Jack Black, but the thing is, it's hardly made me laugh my heart out. No such moment in there. Regretted going for this movie. Should have just waited till the DVDs out.

If you have not done so, watch your trailer here on YouTube.

The whole story is so blend that you can't make out what the movie is trying to portray and where it is going. At some moments, you will be expecting something big or something exciting or something that might surprise you, but none of that came. So, my high hope of being able to enjoy the show was being crushed by the silliness of the movie. Overall, it's a disappointment for me. I didn't like it, should have wasted my movie money on this.

Remarkable Event

2009-09-01T22:50:00.000+08:00

Although I feel too old for this, I'm still gonna express my happiness here.

It's been awhile since I have done my final exams (total of 4 papers) back in May'09 and tried forgetting about receiving the results 3 mnths later. I even went Bangkok with a group of friend with no worries in mind about this. But the rush came back in when it's nearer to the end of Aug'09 because the school has informed us that the results for the final students will be out early Sep'09. The usual fever that I used to have when the time of results, came back to life and I couldn't help but kept checking the school portal for any sort of news for it although I knew that by doing it, I'm not making the results to be out any sooner.

For my 1st year and the 2nd year results, the announcement dates were made known to student like a week earlier and we had to anticipate and be the first few people to log in to the school portal to avoid the online traffic on the announcement day since few thousand other students will be checking their results at the same time. And in most cases, the site will be down because of the congestion and therefore will have difficulties logging in, so usually what we have to do is to keep ourselves logged in to the system since morning and kept refreshing it every other minutes so that we won't get kicked out by the server and won't have to go through the hassle of logging back in. So we went through checking our results with all such dramas.

But this year (my final year), UOL has decided to release the results on their own website instead and that they are going to allow UOL students to log in directly to their website to view their results. But the thing is we are supposed to log in using our UOL Candidate number and UOL Student Reg Number (which I don't even know what number I belonged). So then, THE day came for the announcement and cuz I didn't have my reg number I was calling SIM up to get it. The person on the phone couldn't find my name due to the inane the surname and first name problem. After she found my number, I was trying to just log in and there I saw my results listed according to the subjects I had taken. There was no anticipation, no frustration of being unable to login, no drama of logging in and refreshing of the page every few minutes. I stared at my computer screen for a few seconds without blinking with the fast beating heart, the news just came too harsh on me that I wasn't mentally prepared to view my scores together with the Award title with the Honours Classification. I'm astounded, awed, happy and shocked all at the same time.

Finally, school days are over and now I could use this new title of being a Bachelor holder in days to come. I'm happy for myself, my family and whoever has put faith in me to achieve this milestone in life.

Movie Review: Final Destination 4

2009-08-31T22:12:00.000+08:00

If you are a fan and have been following all the FD movies, you got the picture. Everyone will die but what keeps up going throughout the movie is, how? How are they going to die and who will be next.

I've watched FD from its 1st movie to this - the 4th one. Although, I couldn't actually remember the detail story but I do know this movie is horrid, violent, gruesome and horrifying all at the same time. It's the chill of it that keeps most of the audiences coming back to the same FD show.

I'm definitely, definitely not a fan of Violence. I just happen to see such movies because I think it's only fair that I follow my boyfriend to the movies that he enjoys since he did the same for mine.

Okay, about the movie, it started with the scene where one of the 4 friends (Nick) has a vision that all of them at the Car Race are going to die horribly at the track during the race. The vision came to live but they managed to escaped from it. Out of the 6 survivors of the incident, each one of them die eventually in sequence of death that was shown in Nick's vision earlier. Following the chain of it, they (survivors) tried their best to save each other from death since it's been approaching to each one of them one-by-one. I won't go into details on how and who dies. But, if you are going for this movie, you should be expecting to see some very horrible scenes with the substances of blood, pieces of human flash, bloodied headless body, a girl rolled up live by a faulty escalator, a guy's hand nailed onto the wall, and many more.

I think both Bobby Campo (as Nick) and Shantel VanSanten (as Lori) are such sweethearts.

WARNING: Have your meal before watching the movie, NOT during and NOT after.

99 Things About Me

2009-08-30T12:44:00.000+08:00

It took me awhile to think whether I really want to do this. I have been posting about Movies and Books but not really anything that seems to capture who I am and what I'm like. So, I came up with 99 Things Bout Me, which would basically sum up pretty much about my life.

1. In real life, I have a little black book (cover + sheets of pages are in black) where I would write when I feel something really strong inside but not feeling like telling anyone. No one would get to read that except myself.

2. I’ve never owned a dog, a cat or any other pets except a pair of turtles that stint big time, a bunny that bites TV remote control and a hamster that likes to bite my toes. I let loose of the bunny in the park and the turtles in the reservoir. The hamster died quietly in its cage and found it when I came back home from work. I called my boyfriend and cried but didn’t dare touching that fragile little body.

3. I love sipping coffee while reading book on a rainy day in the bed by the window. It feels like heaven to me.

4. Only at age 20 do I realize that my favourite colour is ‘Green’. Previously, I had none.

5. I don’t like food that is too sweet.

6. I don’t like chocolate.

7. Pizza vs Pasta. Always the pasta for me.

8. Love flowers, have never received one.

9. I have a brother who loves me but never told me once that he loves me.

10. At grade 4, I wet my pants during the class while singing national anthem cuz I have been holding it for sometime since the class is going to be over after singing the anthem. Lucky that we were all released right after that.

11. When we were in primary school, there is a fat boy who hits on me and will do stupid things just to get my attention. No, he didn’t become my boyfriend.

12. I’ve read a love letter from a boy when I was 11 in the school’s toilet, cuz I think it’s very embarrassing to read it in front of my friends.

13. When I was 14, a guy who’s going out with my close friend at that time, once bumped into me on the bridge to school, told me that he would have chosen me over the girl he’s going out with, if only my eyes were bigger. I didn’t get him. He’s just weird.

14. I helped my bro send his love letter to the girl he’s hitting on when I was 12. No, nothing happened between the two.

15. There’s a boy who told his parent that he wants to marry me, he was only 11 and I, 9. The parent promised him that they would help to ask my dad for my hand if he manages to pass the exams with flying colors. He failed 4 of them.

16. I ride my own bicycle to school which was a mile away from my house together with my bro since I was 8.

17. I came home crying one day from school cuz I lost my bicycle and had a hard time telling the story while sobbing real hard to my dad and mom during the meal. Later that day, my dad followed me to school only to know that my bicycle was kept by the headmistress since I didn’t lock it up. She did it for the keepsake for everyone to lock their vehicles.

18. I envied others when I see them riding a motorbike to school and hoped that my parent could buy one for me. Sadly, they weren’t rich enough. (Riding underage was allowed in my small town. People don’t give a damn about the license.)

19. I got into an accident while pillion riding on a friend’s bike and got a scar on my forefeet that will last a lifetime.

20. I shop like a guy. I’m hard to please when it comes to choosing my own clothes / bags / shoes. I don’t just buy anything. I don’t keep trying if I think that I might not be buying it.

21. I can’t follow my girl friends to shop. It just tires me out.

22. When it comes to shopping for books, I got lost in the bookshop. My boyfriend can’t stand this. He tries his best to keep me away from bookstores.

23. I’m sentimental and I keep all the past things that hold a great deal of memories to me, until now.

24. My dad was a doctor. I used to help my dad at his clinic and had a kick out of collecting money from the patients. I realize now that, that wasn't very nice of me to feel that way.

25. When I donate or give, I do it with all my heart without expecting anything back in return. I believe it’s only right to do so.

26. I was born in a small town and grew up in an even smaller town where everyone knows each other.

27. When there’s event at school in my hometown, I’m one of the first whom the teachers would pick to make me perform on stage. Not because I’m good at dancing and stuffs, just because they are very sure that my dad would be willing to fork out budget since he’s the most respectable doctor in town.

28. I started to sleep on a separate bed from my parent since I started my grade 1, unlike my brother who’s 2 years older and he slept with my parent till he’s about 8.

29. I stole a note from my mom’s pulse to get myself a snack and got caught. She didn’t scold me but made me realize my wrongdoing and assured me I could tell her if I want to get something for myself, she’ll get it for me. I’ve never done that again since then.

30. My dad hates eating junk food and doesn’t like us (family members) to eat too.

31. He’s very health conscious but passed away at the age of 50.

32. That was the first time I saw someone die right in front of my eyes.

33. I left my house when I was 13 to pursue a higher education in the big city while staying with my aunt.

34. Until I saw a photo album filled with my bro’s and my childhood pictures on the side stand of my parent bed, I didn’t realize that staying apart from us was such a painful thing for them and that they love and miss us dearly.

35. When I was 12, my dad has once made me embarrassed in front of the whole school. That’s when he was having a health talk in a big hall at school while the students and the lecturer were listening. The topic was about AIDS, he told the audience that ‘Having a daughter myself, I’m going to make sure my future son-in-law to be disease free before getting married to her.’ Friends besides me look at me in unity. I hang my head low from the neck and didn’t know where to put my face.

36. The day before he passed away, he slept beside me with his arm wrapping on my shoulder and told me that he hasn’t been able to stay this way for a long time since I left the house at 13.

37. I used to be a brave kid but the bravery has since been deteriorating. Now, I can’t even watch horror shows without having to think about it the 3 months after.

38. How brave I was? Let me tell you. In my hometown, the bathroom-attached bedroom was way beyond our reach. The toilet is separated from the main house, no electricity at night, I didn’t mind going there alone. When my bro needs to visit toilet during the night, I’d bring him there although he’s 2 yrs senior.

39. When it comes to relationships and stuffs, I did more of the listening than talking. I love lending my ear and a shoulder to cry on whenever my close friends need me.

40. I used to give advices relating to the relationship and stuffs, not because I’ve experienced the cheatings/breakups, etc. just because I used to read a lot about these stuffs.

41. I sometimes wonder if I’d ever get along well with my own sister, if I have one. Girls can be mysterious at times.

42. I got a boyfriend when I was 16 and still with the same guy for 8 years now. No, we’re still not getting married soon.

43. I love reading books and watching movies. But I can’t sit through political movies. They just plainly bore me.

44. I don’t like my favorite actors/actresses for long. My liking changes all the time.

45. I once lived in the obsession of twilight. The vampire stuffs really excite me.

46. I admire pretty/sexy actresses. No, I’m not a les.

47. I put up a strong willed character on the outside but sometimes I cry alone in the room when no one’s around.

48. I can’t get angry for long and I don’t bear grudges.

49. I don’t believe in violence. I can’t stand it when a guy uses his physical force to abuse a girl; the same goes for a girl to a guy.

50. My heart aches when I see strayed cats on the roadside with injuries and blood caused by those heartless people.

51. Cats amuse me sometimes, but I don’t love them enough to keep them at home.

52. Babies are adorable creatures to me until they grow up to talk back to the elders.

53. I love giving more than receiving; I’m generous in giving gifts to someone whom I really love.

54. There’s only one wish that I've been consistently wishing for when praying, that is for my mom to be blessed with good health so that she could spend a longer life with us till she gets to see her grandchildren grow up.

55. I love my cousins although I hardly know some of them because they stay far away from us.

56. I couldn’t open a normal staff account to credit my pay when I get my first job because I was below the age limit of 21.

57. 3 other friends and I once went up to the restricted rooftop of my friend’s condo to take pictures when I was 15.

58. When it comes to the New Year water festival, I was never allowed to go out of the house.

59. When I go shopping, it has to be with someone else from home. I was never allowed to go out alone when I was with my aunt.

60. I used to have long hair (reaching towards the thighs) before shaving it off to be a nun for 17 days – where I had to stay at the monastery eating a meal a day in the morning and meditate throughout the day coupling with the teachings for Buddhism. After which, I’ve fainted back at home due to malnutrition.

61. I have my little cousin who remembers our childhood better than I do. She’s a year (or 2?) younger than me.

62. I thought that I’d never fit in when I first came to Singapore. Now, I have no problem fitting in but I still have my confidence disappeared with a ‘poof’ whenever I speak to someone superior, in terms of level, status, or even a higher level of language skills.

63. I miss my dad very often and frequently had dreams of getting him back to life.

64. My mom is a cancer survivor of 6 years, still going strong, or at least, I’d very much like to hope so for many more years to come.

65. I once got scolded by an elderly woman (old enough to be my grandma) in dialect for overtaking her on a small lane while grocery shopping. I turned to say sorry (but I don’t think she understands) and walked away as fast as I could.

66. There were exactly 2 significant times that I felt so small and cried to bed during my working life.

67. I once hit (punched) a wall and got bruises on my knuckles when I got into a fight with my boyfriend. I don’t believe in violence, so I didn’t hit him but the wall instead. That was the only way to vent my frustration.

68. I didn’t look at my dad’s funeral pictures more than twice since he's passed cuz every time I see them, they made me shudder.

69. Numbers of house I lived in, 7 in total, that’s just alone in Singapore.

70. The first time I stood up like an adult is only 2 years back when my boyfriend got into a bike accident and I was the first person he could think of during emergency.

71. It warmed my heart, when he told me that ‘How can I ever be not careful when you’re with me on my bike? I’d never put you in any kind of danger, much more than I’d take care of myself, I’d take care of you’.

72. He isn’t very good with showing public affection, but I know how people treat each other when they are really in love.

73. I believe in true love, but I also believe that happy ending doesn’t always happen.

74. Sometimes, I have this thought that the shorter than average people like me, don’t really fit in and respect from other people is a hard thing to earn.

75. I have a gay friend and I have nothing against them.

76. Once a close friend of mine disappeared on me with no message left behind. Few months later, we were in contact again and she seems to act as nothing’s ever happened. It hurts sometimes when you know the friends you love are using you.

77. I still feel jealous of those girls who have better look/body than me. Oh well, I’m only a girl.

78. The thought of writing a diary always occurs to me, I’d start a few pages and nothing after that. I’ve never consistently written a diary like my dad.

79. I’m not familiar with rejection. When I have one, I took it very hard.

80. I work in a bank, but I have problem managing my finance. Yet, I’m still better than my boyfriend. Can you imagine?

81. I’m often mistaken to be a Chinese.

82. I can swim but I don’t know how to thread water.

83. I don’t kill any kind of bugs/insects, except cockroaches. They bite all my stuffs and I hate them.

84. I try not to tell lies, unless it’s really necessary for the sake of other people and only if it’s a white lie.

85. I’m trying to loose some weights, but still failing to do so.

86. I don’t like anyone talking bad about my loved ones.

87. My brother always stands up to protect me since young and didn’t give his friends a chance to talk to me or even talk about me.

88. During the matriculation class, a few of my private classmates polled together to sack an economics teacher because she didn’t teach us well. No, I'm not proud of it. That's actually not a nice thing to do.

89. A mathematics teacher of ours took my workbook after the academic year ended, he told me
that he would like to keep that as the model book for his next year’s class. I’m deeply flattered and thought to myself that I should have written nicer.

90. I was so proud to have a distinction on native language during my matriculation examination cuz I thought I suck big time.

91. The first time I learnt about ‘liquid paper/correction pen’ was when my close friend used it in a letter that was posted to me. I was fascinated.

92. I don’t snore during sleep, but I burble.

93. I don’t close my eyes more than 2 secs when I wash my face when I’m scared and have an imagination of having a ghost in my bathroom.

94. I’m very decisive in what I want.

95. The first time my boyfriend sings to me over the phone, it melted my heart.

96. I’ve caused a pan on fire while frying egg and went out abruptly to attend to a call.

97. I can’t keep new clothes in the wardrobe for long; I just have to wear them immediately.

98. I don’t particularly like to cook but I enjoy cooking for my boyfriend.

99. My biggest dream right now is to own a house, a car, build a family and live happy ever after.

There I said it. I was thinking if it's too revealing. Anyway, if this makes you know me better, I'll be happy that my effort of writing this out won't be wasted.

Book Review: He's just not that into you

2009-08-29T15:08:00.001+08:00

I've watched the movie before reading this book and liked it. I've expected the book to be the reiteration of the movie but it proves me otherwise. The book is actually in the form of many short chapters with the relationship questions and answers type of stuffs. The authors of the book Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo took turns to have their say in the book but Greg is primarily the person who answers the questions. The stories featured in the book were based on some real stories for certain one and there are some stories that were made up by the authors as well. The whole book revolves around the following topics (as the book title goes)

He's just not that into you if
1. He's Not Asking You Out
2. He's Not Calling You
3. He's Not Dating You
4. He's Not Having Sex with You
5. He's Having Sex with Someone Else
6. He Only Wants to See You When He's Drunk
7. He Doesn't Want to Marry You
8. He's Breaking Up with You
9. He's Disappeared on You
10. He's Married (and Other Insane Variations of Being Unavailable)
11. He's a Selfish Jerk, a Bully, or a Really Big Freak

There are really good lines that I picked out from the book and could actually relate to some of them in terms of my personal encounters or those who around me.

This book is sort of like a self-help book to realize what kind of actions/behaviors of a guy should be translated into. As much as I don't agree with some of the things Greg mentioned in the book, I do realize that most of them are painful but damn true.

Here's some that I would definitely like to share with you.

If a man likes you, he will ask you out. Men find it very satisfying to get what they want. If we want you, we will find you. If you don't think you gave him enough time to notice you, take the time it took you to notice him and divide it by half.

If a guy truly likes you, but for personal reasons he needs to take things slow, he will let you know that immediately. He won't keep you guessing, because he'll want to make sure you don't get frustrated and go away. - A friend of mine is definitely facing this problem.

As a man, we like taking a break from our generally mundane day to talk to someone we like. It makes us happy. And we like to be happy. Just like you. If I were into you, you would be the bright spot in my horribly busy day. Which would be a day that I would never be too busy to call you. The word 'Busy' is the relationship Weapon of Mass Destruction. It seems like a good excuse, but in fact, in every silo you uncover, all you're going to find is a man who didn't care enough to call. Remember: Men are never too busy to get what they want. - Don't we have this excuse being used on us all the time?

If he creates expectations for you, and then doesn't follow through on little things, he will do the same for big things, be aware of this and realize that he's okay with disappointing you.

Don't be with someone who doesn't do what they say they're going to do.

'Hanging out' is not dating. So many gray, murky areas of vagueness, mystery, and no questions asked. Dudes love this time because that's when they get to pretend they're not really dating you. Then they also get to pretend they're not really responsible for your feelings. - Sadly it's true. A friend one mine is in such situation for a long time.

If you don't know where the relationship is going, it's okay to pull over and ask.

If he's really into you, he will want to tell everyone that he's your boyfriend. - I would like that.

There's no excuse for cheating. Cheating is Cheating. It doesn't matter whom it was with or how many times it happened. Cheating gets easier every time it's done. It's only hard the first time, when one feels the sting of morality and the guilt of betraying some one's trust.

There will never be a good time, financially to get married. But somehow, people manage. If your man is using money as an excuse not to marry you, it's your relationship that's insecure, not his bank account.

If he breaks up with you and call you everyday. Don't be flattered that he misses you. He should miss you. You're deeply missable. However, he's still the same person who just broke up with you. Remember, the only reason he can miss you is because he's choosing, every day, not to be with you.

It's very tempting when you really want to be with someone to settle for much, much less - even a vague, pathetic facsimile of less-than you would have ever imagined. Ladies, please keep your eye on the prize. Remember always what you set out to get, and please don't settle for less. If you can't do it for you, do it for everyone else: these guys are able to exist because there are a lot of women out there who allow them to.

He doesn't need to be reminded that you're great. You are not easily forgotten. Let him find you when he's ready.

If a guy is yelling out about his ex-wife or crying over his last girlfriend, try to find someone else to take you to the movies.

"He's got so much good in him. he really does. I just wish he wouldn't tell me to shut up all the time.". Yeah, that's a problem. Try not to ignore it. I know "he's got so many other great qualities." That's why you fell in love with him in the first place. I know you wouldn't fall in love with an asshole. But here's the trick: Forget about him and his good qualities. Even forget about his bad ones. Forget about all his excuses and what he promises. Ask yourself one question only: Is he making you happy? Does he make it clear in his actions everyday that your happiness is important to him? If the answer is no, cut him loose and go find a man with a higher 'good count'.

There's lots of behavior that can be considered abusive that doesn't include being beaten about the head and neck. That includes getting yelled at, being publicly humiliated, or being made to feel fat and unattractive. It's hard to feel worthy of love when someone is going of their way to make you feel worthless. Being told to get out of these relationships may not work for you. Knowing that you're better than these relationships is the place to start. You are better than these relationships.

Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn, What's next?

2009-08-28T17:47:00.000+08:00

Midnight Sun!! That's right, you heard me. Stephenie Meyer is working on this book 'Midnight Sun' which is the extension of the Twilight Saga, based on Edward's point of view of the whole story. This is very exciting. Being a fan, reading her books is never enough. Even ending the series at the last published book 'Breaking Dawn' is quite sad cuz I haven't had enough. =) Apparently, the draft copy of Midnight Sun was being leaked out on the internet, so, Stephenie Meyer has decided to put it up for all readers on her official website.

Click here to read the partial draft copy of Midnight Sun.

Book Review: The Host by Stephenie Meyer

2009-08-26T21:38:00.000+08:00

This is the book written by the Author of Twilight Series, Stephenie Meyer. As much as I have my passion on the books, when I review the books on this blog, I write it with full respects to the authors. Particularly for the books by SM, I love her style of writing, how she could describe every little details on how the characters were feeling emotionally - which I think is THE hardest part of writing.

My First read from SM was the Twilight series, which I will post the reviews on a later time. That's my love attached to her twilight series which brought me the interest in reading this other book from her, The Host. I was so blinded that I don't even know what this book is all about. Usually, when I walk in to any bookstores, I'd see the best sellers on the special shelf that is visible even to the people loitering around the bookshop. The books like twilight, new moon aren't quite hard to find. Well, this book, The Host attracted my attention being right next to the Twilight Saga special pack. It doesn't have to be some bestseller, just because it's SM's book, I thought that I'm so going to read that no matter what.

So then, I started reading it without even looking at the teaser at the back cover of the book. According to her, it's a science fiction which is intended to the non-sci-fi lovers. Like I said, I had no idea it was a science fiction. To tell you the truth, I wasn't really a fan of sci-fi. But as I continue to read the book, it caught me so hooked on to it that I just have to continue reading it all the time, at home, on the train, getting past my usual bed time. SM was so good with the trilling excitements and loving romance, both at the same time. I get a kick out of reading the special 'names' in this book.

While I wonder how is it going to be like to turn this into a movie, the characters from the Twilight flashes my mind. It is so going to be an interesting one on screen.

Go get a copy for yourself here, you won't regret it.

Movie Review: The Proposal

2009-08-25T22:32:00.000+08:00

Just came back from the movie and as usual, I had to write something about it here. Prior to watching it, I knew from many others who have watched it, it is going to be a great movie. So, I think it's a little unfair to write a review now after all that high expectations have been set. I don't usually like to do that because it somehow affect and hence alter my honest opinion on the movie. That's usually the case with the movies that was based on the book and I happened to have read the book before the movie. Visuals could hardly beat a good book cuz first of all, movies have a window of 2 hours to get the whole story out to the audiences, second of all, it could never elaborate just like the book always does and third of all, you are watching the images of the book through the movie's director's set of eyes - which usually does not correspond to a set of your own.

It is a romantic comedy which would keep you smiling, laughing and loving it throughout the movie with the great acting by both Sandra Bullock (as Margaret) and Ryan Reynolds (as Andrew). Despite her age, Sandra Bullock is still as stunning and natural as usual. Ryan Reynolds (his recent movie - Definitely, May be) did a great job putting on the wat's-going-on/i'm-in-a-deep-shit look. You just can't don't love the both of them when watching it, it's funny, at times touching and heartwarming all at the same time.

A short summary of the movie would be, Margaret - a famous Editor of a leading company in NY aka the lady boss who is being addressed as a 'witch' by her subordinates, came from Canada and now work in NY. Andrew - assistant Editor aka the secretary of Margaret had no idea of his misfortune coming on his way and got himself into the scam to work around the immigration issue that Margaret was facing. Being an American citizen, Andrew was dragged into the forged engagement with Margaret and gotten himself spending the weekends with Margaret and his family at his hometown. It focuses on the events that happen during the weekends with Andrew's family, showing the unity of the family and the bonding among the family members and how Margaret came to realize how awful it is to break the heart of the family members who has no idea about the scam engagement. Will Margret and Andrew fall in love with each other? Oh well, you will have to find out for yourself. :) I don't want to be the spoiler.

Oh, and you will see quite a bit of familiar faces in the show. Throughout the show, I was trying to recall who Gertrude (Andrew's ex girlfriend) was in some other movies cuz she looks very much familiar but I couldn't name any of the movie.

Remember the the girl from the watchmen who wears yellow and a bit of black costume? Well, that's her - Malin Akerman. A little low key profile for her in this movie thou.

Click here for the full Synopsis from IMDB.

Facebook, a Lame Book?

2009-08-23T22:06:00.000+08:00

Recently, I've heard of many scandals happened on the Facebook, some of them funny, some rather scary. It is indeed a dangerous social website for those who are not careful with their accounts or those who are incompetent when it comes to using computers or non-tech-savvy folks. FB could turn really scary for those unfortunates.

Check out this website Lamebook.com which reveals many of the FB incidences.

Here is a scary lesson one could end up with. Poor lady who has no idea FB is public or she's so unfortunate that somebody hacked her account to put up such status messages, I don't know, seriously.

I'm so not going to log in to FB using public computers.

Book Review: Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

2009-08-22T17:36:00.000+08:00

I got my hands on this book purely based on the curiosity that this book was recently turned into a movie. I've never read a book before from Sophie Kinsella although I did know that she has published many books on the Shopaholics and it didn't get the least of my interest until I found out that this book was turned into a movie. See how powerful it is to draw the readers attentions when Hollywood decides to shoot a movie out of the book? After all, the publicity and advertisement were essential in this world.

It is an easy-to-read book. The story of this book revolves around a girl named Rebecca Bloomwoods who constantly fails to get herself away from the urge to shopping and attempts to cut the expenditures or to save up. It was scary how she spends her credits from so many different banks and tries to get away from all the credit card bills reminders and many constant letters from the banks. I could actually feel the chill at the back of my spine when I know she has no where to go yet has to avoid the manager from the bank cuz she wasn't able to pay back. I'm sure everyone if not almost all of us know how it feels like to have no cash or the bank statement that is drying up at some points of our lives. We did experienced the urge of buying things just because they are of that great brands and that they are on sales. No matter whether you need it or not, you'd think it's 'worth it' to just buy now since you might need it in future, didn't we? The book touches on how younger generations should take responsibility in any actions they do (which I think is quite educational) the romance life of Rebecca although she has mistaken herself that all she's after is money, hence only look up to millionaires. I think Luke Brandon (the guy whom she met and couldn't get along) is a sweet guy. I won't reveal anymore story on this book, you've got to read it yourself. :)

The author, Sophie has got a cute webbie of her own. Click here to visit her webpage.

Get this book yourself here.

Movie Review: I Love You, Man

2009-08-22T16:02:00.001+08:00

Official Plot Summary from IMDB: Peter Klaven's world revolves around his real estate work and Zooey, his soon-to-be fiancée. After he pops the question, she calls her best friends and they go into wedding planning mode. Peter has no male friends and that poses problems: will he turn out to be a clingy guy, and who will be his best man? Zooey, her friends, and Peter's brother Robbie offer help that results in awkward moments. Then, at an open house Peter's hosting, he meets Sydney, an amiable, low-key guy. They trade business cards, and Peter calls him to meet for drinks. A friendship develops that's great at first but then threatens Peter's engagement and career. Can guys be friends and couples be in love?

Paul Rudd (his other recent movie - Role Model) acts as the friendless guy Peter Klaven who is about to get married to his girlfriend Zoey but yet to find a best man for the wedding. In an attempt to find a guy friend whom he could call a 'close friend', he got himself into the gay world. Eventually he met a new friend named Sydney Fife (played by Jason Segel - his other recent movie - Forgetting Sarah Marshall) and the movie captures how they met each other, how the friendship was developed, etc. Since Paul didn't have close guy friends all his life, it was difficult and awkward for him to suddenly look for a new guy friends without being able to differentiate the straight man from the gay man. I love the honesty of Paul that the movie is trying to capture. Although it's a little crude and not suitable for the teenagers, after all the movie is able to tell us how 'good friends' should treat each other.

Book Review: One Fifth Avenue by Candice Bushnell

2009-08-21T21:39:00.000+08:00

I’ve always been a fan of Candace Bushnell and have been following almost all of the books that she’s published. However, I’m not going to claim myself as a true fan of hers because I have yet to read her renown book “Sex and The City”.

3 years ago, when I walked into a small bookshop that allows you to rent or buy books from them. How it works is that, they tag 2 prices on each of the book that they carry at their shop, the 1st price being the amount that you are gonna pay for getting hold of the book. The 2nd price is the amount you’d get back once you come back to return the book at any of their outlets. They usually give about 1 or 2 months of grace period for you to consider if you want to own the book or to return it back in the original condition when you first rented. The period varies according to the popularity and the on-the-shelf age of the book. I love this idea because I am given a choice whether or not I want to buy it, unlike buying from the bookshops like borders, MPH and popular at a higher price and there is no turning back if you happen to not enjoy the book you've bought.

While I started to read the famous books recommended by friends and colleagues, I’ve explored more on different authors. That's when I came across Candice Bushnell’s books. I knew there was a Sitcom ‘Sex and The City (SATC)’ but I was never interested to watch it. When I saw the book written by the same author, I though of trying out her books. So then I started reading '4 Blonds', followed by 'Trading Up' and the 'Lipstick Jungle'. That’s when I realise that I like her writing styles and admire her ability to be always able to capture the glamorous lifestyles of residents in New York City and able to make me feel as if I’m part of the story.

Recently, I’ve read another book from her – ‘One Fifth Avenue’. After a long period of time I have not been reading her books, this book brought me back to the older days. This is the kind of book that if you try to transform into a movie, the movie might seem too shallow. This book is based on a simple but an interesting story of the residents of One Fifth apartment at the One Fifth Avenue in the NY city. How they take pride to be staying at the apartment since there are high requirements (besides high price) in selecting residents for the apartment, the scandals among the residents and their individual encounters in their lives. Although it is something we might not experience is this country, there are similarities in all of us as human beings when it comes to reacting, responding and retaliating to certain events that occur under certain circumstances. So, I could relate to the characters in the book and understand why they did certain things that they did.

I’m giving a 4 stars to this book cuz I truly enjoyed its company throughout the reading journey.

Movie Review: Up

2009-08-16T23:56:00.000+08:00

Official Plot Summary from IMDB: A young Carl Fredrickson meets a young adventure spirited girl named Ellie. They both dream of going to a Lost Land in South America. 70 years later, Ellie has died. Carl remembers the promise he made to her. Then, when he inadvertently hits a construction worker, he is forced to go to a retirement home. But before they can take him, he and his house fly away. However he has a stowaway aboard. An 8 year old boy named Russell, whose trying to get an assisting the elderly badge. Together, they embark in an adventure, where they encounter talking dogs, an evil villain and a rare bird named Kevin.

Giving this movie 5 stars, and all of it should go to the meaningfulness of the plot. From the teaser, it only looked like the man with the rectangular spectacles is a grumpy old man, but the first 10-15 minutes of the movie opposed to it. Just be warned that NOT all the scenes capture funny moments.

Go experience it for yourself. Although it's not too practical to have invested a floating house in the air with hundreds of air balloons, c'mon, you've gotta have some imagination to appreciate such movies. It's funny and heartwarming at the same time.

This movie is available in 3-D but I caught the normal one. The glasses used for 3-D movies give me giddiness somehow. The next possible movie I'm gonna watch is The proposal. The review coming up soon!. =)

Movie Review: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

2009-08-16T23:31:00.000+08:00

Read official synopsis from IMDB here.

I'm very happy to have caught this movie today and giving it 5 stars cuz it truly deserves it. Although I'm not really a action movies fan, I enjoyed every bit of G.I. Joe. From the first 5 mins to the last few mins, the show was action packed. No draggy parts in between, the casts were great. The machines, gadgets and technology used in the show were beyond imagination.

Didn't know the Korean actor Byung-hun Lee could speak English that well with very minimal korean accent. The movie portrayed the love between Channing Tatum (as Duke) and Sienna Miller (as Anna) although they are of from different sides of the goods and the bads. Channing Tatum acted previously in the Step Up movie, and he is my friend Kay's favourite. =) Sienna has got her look in this movie and I couldn't recall that she acted in Stardust as Victoria.

G.I. Joe is still showing in Cinemas now and you definitely might not want to miss it. The awesomeness I mentioned in here, you should go witness it with your own set of eyes. =)

Happy Watching!!

Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

2009-08-15T18:16:00.001+08:00

Official Plot Summary from the IMDB: In the sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft, and in both wizard and muggle worlds Lord Volemort and his henchmen are increasingly active. With vacancies to fill at Hogwarts, Professor Dumbledor persuades Horace Slughorn, back from retirement to become the potions teacher, while Professor Snape receives long awaited news. Harry Potter, together with Dumbledore, must face treacherous tasks to defeat his evil nemesis.

I am a fan of J.K. Rowling and have read all her Harry Potter books quite some time back and considering of re-reading them again to refresh my memory of Harry Potter. I was anticipating this movie to be out initial part of the year 2009. However, was rather disappointed after watching the show when it's really out showing. Most of the thrilling actions written in the books were being cut off, this makes the movie look boring with too much talking. The casts have grown up, Hermione Granger played by Emma Watson has grown up to be a babe.

For this movie, I think reading the book would have given you more information and thrills that you usually would look for in HP movies. Rent a DVD rather than watching it at the cinema.

Movie Review: The Hangover

2009-08-15T17:59:00.001+08:00

Official Plot Summary from IMDB: Angelenos Doug Billings and Tracy Garner are about to get married. Two days before the wedding, the four men in the wedding party - Doug, Doug's two best buddies Phil Wenneck and Stu Price, and Tracy's brother Alan Garner - hop into Tracy's father's beloved Mercedes convertible for a 24-hour stag party to Las Vegas. Phil, a married high school teacher, has the same maturity level as his students when he's with his pals. Stu, a dentist, is worried about everything, especially what his controlling girlfriend Melissa thinks. Because she disapproves of traditional male bonding rituals, Stu has to lie to her about the stag, he telling her that they are going on a wine tasting tour in the Napa Valley. Regardless, he intends on eventually marrying her, against the advice and wishes of his friends. And Alan seems to be unaware of what are considered the social graces of the western world. The morning after their arrival in Las Vegas, they awaken in their hotel suite each with the worst hangover. None remembers what happened in the past twelve or so hours. The suite is in shambles. And certain things are in the suite that shouldn't be, and certain things that should be in the suite are missing. Probably the most important in the latter category is Doug. As Phil, Stu and Alan try to find Doug using only what little pieces of information they have at hand, they go on a journey of discovery of how certain things got into the suite and what happened to the missing items. However they are on a race for time as if they can't find Doug in the next few hours, they are going to have to explain to Tracy why they are not yet back in Los Angeles. And even worse, they may not find Doug at all before the wedding.

I'm giving this movie a 4 and half star because it managed to keep me entertained and kept me laughing throughout the show. Initially, I wasn't keen on watching it at the cinema because I think that the movie is such a lame cheap flick with the typical storyline about the night at the Vegas. Boy, was I wrong! The 2 (not good looking) guys that I think might know really know how to act proved me wrong. The guy with the big belly (Alan) was the funniest in the show. Although, he and his look are insignificant, he was THE funniest. Funny in his own weird natural way. Heather Graham acted as the stripper in the show and she is one pretty babe. This movie has got its own interesting parts and definitely not the typical Vegas night kinda show.

I'm totally recommending the movie, you should go watch it. You'll love it and I'd like to hear your view of it. =)

Day 3 at Bangkok

2009-08-15T16:49:00.000+08:00

11 August 2009
The last day in Bangkok, kinda sad but knowing that the flight schedule is at night, we decided to go for the full day activities at Dreamworld Theme Park.

9:00Am Bangkok Local Time
After the usual breakfast at the hotel's restaurant, we waited for the van that would bring us to the Dreamworld. The van arrived on time and it took us about 45 mins ride to the park. It was outside the city, after getting past a few traffic jams, we were on our smooth route to the park.

The sun was glaring hot. Good thing we brought a cap and a pair of shades. We stopped at many lovely places to take pictures. Tried every ride that were available in the package, as well as the additional ones that we wanted to try and topped up the cash for trying them.

12:30Pm Bangkok Local Time
We thought of skipping the lunch cuz we were engrossed in playing but the lady who brought us to the park - Sophie - found us on the way and dragged us to have lunch at the foodcourt like place in the park. They served buffet of the local food including the salad, mains and desserts. We ate a bit just for the sake of eating something and continued with the haunting house and few other places for the pictures. We didn't take any more rides after lunch cuz we're worried we might throw up.

3:00Pm Bangkok Local Time
Meeting point at the 3pm, that's what Sophie has told us and we were there on time after enjoying all the fun in the park. We were quite beat after all the activities and most of us fall asleep on the van, on the way back to town. We requested Sophie to drop us at the BIG C Supermarket and also fixed another van with her to bring us to to the airport at night cuz we do not want to take any separate cabs for 6 of us.

4:30Pm Bangkok Local Time
We did our last minute shopping at the BIG C, bought a pair of berms and a t-shirt for my bro, and other porridge, instant noodles, local tom yam local pastes, local crackers and snacks for my house. Although, it was a short while, it was worth going to the BIG C cuz I bought most of the stuffs there and happy that I did.

5:30Pm Bangkok Local Time
We were back at the hotel, all of us take shower 1 by 1 in 1 hotel room cuz the other 2 rooms were already checked out. We cut the cakes for K and BB in the room while having dinner. We were all set just on time.

7:30Pm Bangkok Local Time
Arrived at the airport, Jessie was sweet enough to personally fetch us to the airport. We did tipped her handsomely (I think) =). We were all glad that we made it to the airport nicely on time, although the traffic to the airport wasn't that smooth. Did some window shopping at the BKK airport duty free shops.

1:00Am Singapore Local Time
Touched down to SG airport, felt like home but the heart was heavy just thinking of going to work the next sunrise. hummpphh. Few of my friends took urgent leave cuz they were too exhausted to go to work. Strangely, I woke up at 7am to be just on time to leave for work. So, I did go to work. =)

It was a fun and a very fast-paced trip for all of us. It sure is a memorable one.

Day 2 at Bangkok

2009-08-13T22:54:00.000+08:00

10 August 2009
Day 1 was activities filled. Day 2 wasn't any lesser. It was such a short trip and we were too greedy with our itinerary - blame it on Jetstar for not letting us book a day earlier with the promo price or blame it on our companies that give us limited number of days for leave? =D

8:00Am Bangkok Local Time
All of us met at the restaurant just beside the hotel for our free breakfast buffet provided from the hotel. Oh well, it's not really free, it's just that our room rates include the breakfast. The food was average but able to filled us up before starting another day with full of activities.

9:00Am Bangkok Local Time
The van that we requested for arrived at the hotel together with the 'tour guide' - the guy who will bring us around at the Grand Palace and the Emerald Buddha. The TG was quite poor in English, we had difficulties understanding him. He was unable to explain what was all the places about and most of the time, when we went further in to look at the details, he would stand around and wait for us outside. But, when we come out of the place, we had to look for him to go to the next stop. Wasn't it such an easy money to make, being a Tour Guide in BKK without needing to speak. I don't mind doing that business myself.

11:00Am Bangkok Local Time
After the trip back from the Grand Palace without knowing which places has what history, we asked the van to drop us at the Siam Paragon to visit Ocean World.

Ocean World is the Singapore Sentosa's Underwater World like place in a bigger size and more variety of sea creatures. Only took us the first few minutes of 'excitements' with Woos and Woows, before we know it, we were attacked by a bunch of school kids who came to the same place for school excursion. If only we knew about this earlier, we wouldn't plan to go there on that day. We quickened up our pace to avoid the kids and came back from the place after experiencing the 4-D show and the Glass Bottom boat.

2:00pm Bangkok Local Time
We settled our lunch at the foodcourt at the Siam Paragon. They have the concept of using Card to pay for lunch, the stalls in the foodcourt, they don't accept cash. We split into 3 small groups to share for the food. One thing I realised about the food stalls in BKK foodcourt is that, they use loads of greens and most of the stuffs they show over the counter are fresh, raw vegetables, meats and seafoods. The food quality was good. We tried a few local foods.

After lunch, we walked towards MBK shopping mall and did some shoppings. I bought some local food back for my house. And we head back to the hotel separately from there. Tuk Tuk took us almost 30 mins to get to the hotel due to the heavy traffic and we spent about 110 BHT for tuk tuk.

5:00pm Bangkok Local Time
We've requested for a van to bring us to Lebua Hotel at the State Tower to celebrate my friend Kay's and BB's birthday. When we arrived at the hotel from shopping, it's already 5 and the van would come at 7. So, it's a good thing we had some time to freshen up and take a quick power nap before preparing for the night.

8:00pm Bangkok Local Time
There we are at the Sky Bar at 8. The place is known to have restrictions on the proper attire while going up the Sky Bar. I even experienced it with my own set of eyes that they turned a guy (a westerner) down and did NOT let him go in becuase he's wearing berms and a pair of slippers. He tried to go along with the group of people who were wearing smartly but the greeter ladies at the lobby managed to catch him. For us, ladies were in their dresses and guys in their smart wears. We did prepare beforehand, so we didn't have any problem marching into the bar. We treated ourselves a glass of cocktail, enjoyed the stunning skyline of bkk and head back to hotel.

It was another FUN day.. =)

Day 1 at Bangkok

2009-08-13T21:39:00.000+08:00

9 AUG 2009 (Sunday)
It's been a long time since I've gone for a trip that is not office outing. During the period of November last year, while I was looking at a promo price for Jetstar, an idea struck me to plan for a shopping trip to bangkok with friends. And, here we are on the 9th August 09 - while people in Singapore are celebrating their 44th National day, arrived at the Bangkok Suvarnabhumi International airport. =)

8:30Am Bangkok Local Time
Although we woke up at 4am in the morning to rush out for the flight at the Singapore airport, we are still energised and looked forward to all the fun that we will have in Bangkok. The journey on the flight was okay, it took about 2 hours to reach bkk airport. The landing wasn't very gentle, so all of us kinda blame the pilot for that. Jetstar doesn't provide food for this trip, may be there really is no food provided for the short trips.

10:15Am Bangkok Local Time
After getting past the immigration, custom, collected the baggage and found the transport that was booked beforehand, we arrived at the Ecotel Hotel. After making payments and gotten our own set of keys, we gave ourselves 15mins to get changed an arranged to met at he lobby to head out for lunch.

10:45Am Bangkok Local Time
We are all ready for lunch and I brought my friends to the 'Tom Yum' local restaurant next door from the hotel. Unfortunately we were too early for the lunch hours. Knowing that we HAVE to go to Chuatuchuk weekends market on Sunday, we are all very charged up to head to the market right after lunch. Jessie, the sweet girl at the Tour Desk at the hotel helped us to check with the restaurant owner to see if they are ready to open the store for lunch. We gave her a few marks for going extra miles giving that service although it's not exactly her job to do so. One thing about Jessie is that, she could speak English fluently with a little bit of her local accent, so, there was no problem communicating with her during the whole trip whereas you can't expect local people to understand you speaking in English. Anyway, back to the lunch topic, we made order for our food even before the store was opened. The girls at the store offered us the menu and we chose 3 set lunches for 6 of us. The food were delicious, my friend N liked the local fried fish cake, I liked the deep fried fish that was so tasty and so crispy that I finished almost the whole fish except for the bones.

1:30pm Bangkok Local Time
There were 6 of us and we had difficulties getting metered cab and making sure that both of the cabs drop us at the exact same place. Some of us are on our roaming, but, getting lost in bkk is nothing like one would experience in Singapore. The exact thing happened to us for the journey to CTC market. We split into 2 groups to get 2 different cabs. The driver of the other cab dropped my friends at the entrance and my stupid driver dropped us at the other end away from entrance. We did try to make one round to look for the other group of friends, but realised that the market was too big to loop. So, in the end, we shopped in our own small groups and head back to hotel. Not forgetting that half of the time in the mkt, we were confused as to which block we have visited. It was just too big. I couldn't cover all the stores due to the limited time and the limited energy of my legs as well. I didn't manage to get a bag for myself which I was planning to get before going to BKK. Things were cheap and water was the most delicious liquid in the world for the hot and humid day at CTC market.

5:00Pm Bangkok Local Time
Back to hotel, felt relaxed and refreshed after a cool shower. We were just too tired to go to another place, so, just decided to try the food at the roadside stalls nearby. We had our noodle near 7-11, papaya salad (that was terrible) and roasted corn (yummy~). After dinner, we strolled towards the Platinum shopping mall which was within quite a walkable distance from hotel. Enjoyed the stretch of roadside food/clothes stalls on the way and ended the night with a drinking session in my fren's P's room.

Movie Review: Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

2009-07-04T09:38:00.000+08:00

Official Sypnosis referred from IMDB: After the events of "Ice Age: The Meltdown", life begins to change for Manny and his friends: Scrat is still on the hunt to hold onto his beloved acorn, while finding a possible romance in a female sabre-toothed squirrel named Scratte. Manny and Ellie, having since become an item, are expecting a baby, which leaves Manny anxious to ensure that everything is perfect for when his baby arrives. Diego is fed up with being treated like a house-cat and ponders the notion that he is becoming too laid-back. Sid begins to wish for a family of his own, and so steals some dinosaur eggs which leads to Sid ending up in a strange underground world where his herd must rescue him, while dodging dinosaurs and facing danger left and right, and meeting up with a one-eyed weasel known as Buck who hunts dinosaurs intently.

I'm giving 3 and a half star for this movie mainly for its cuteness and the funny lines. Just like the usual Ice Age movies, small scrat is still hunting for the acorn but what is new about this movie is that he found the love of his life besides Acorn. =P The movie reflects the parental instincts on these animals. The story exposes the friendships between the group of animals who stick together through thick and thin. It is a really heart-warming movie that you might not want to miss.

Movie Review: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

2009-07-01T00:24:00.000+08:00

Official Sypnosis referred from IMDB:The battle for Earth has ended but the battle for the universe has just begun. After returning to Cybertron, Starscream assumes command of the Decepticons, and has decided to return to Earth with force. The Autobots believing that peace was possible finds out that Megatron's dead body has been stolen from the US Military by Skorpinox and revives him using his own spark. Now Megatron is back seeking revenge and with Starscream and more Decepticon reinforcements on the way, the Autobots with reinforcements of their own, may have more to deal with then meets the eye.

I strongly disagree that a movie like this deserves 1 popcorn ratings. From the movie, you could tell one has put in tremendous efforts into making this video. It's not a easy job doing the visual effects, the cars, the gadgets, the alienlike characters and their detailed features on their body and faces. It's one COOL movie that all the Transformers fan will love. Although I don't grow up playing with the transformer toys, although I'm not a big fan of transformer either, I did enjoy watching this movie on the big screen and appreciated the fabulous scenes.

The only drawback is that, for the fighting scenes, the camera could go a bit shaky and for a few times, made me feel uneasy staring at the screen play taken with the shaky camera. Also, the camera gets really too close when the robots are fighting and at some point in time, I've lost my view of which is the good and which is the bad. Besides those few issues, this movie does great job to me.

Ahem.. Not forgetting the sexy Megan who has been one of the many reasons why men (both Transformer fans and non-Transformers fans) look forward to this movie. Remember how Megan Fox looked in the "Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen" as compared to the current "Transformer" movie? She's always been one gorgeous girl I must say.

I like this pic of hers:

Serendipity Eye

2009-06-25T00:43:00.000+08:00

The real story is not as dramatic as the title sounds. :)

Two days ago (Monday), I woke up with swollen left eye as if someone has bashed me up the eye. It's not like I didn't know it's coming. A day before that day, I already felt the pain right below the eyebrow. The culprit was the gigantic ingrown pimple that is so serious that it causes the area around it. On Monday, it was so bad that I took a day off from work to see doc. Much better now that I've taken the necessary medications and the cream that doc gave was very good.

I had a little overpriced dinner for the quality of food that was provided at AMK hub with him. He sent me home afterwards. Soon after I left him, he messaged me and told me that bb (that's how he calls his bike) and I have so many things in common that when we fall ill, we both do at the same time. He was saying that because BB's headlight went bad that night and not forgetting I had my left eye in a bad shape too. Why didn't I think of that? LoL..