Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Case of the Missing Santa

Here's the full story for the Case of the Missing Santa, in case you have been following ;)

Dec 10th: The case file was opened when Santa was seen tied up on top of a log cake with a masked ninja standing in guard.

The search for missing Santa soon began...no one could imagine a bleak Xmas with no Santa.

All agents were out and about.
Dec 12th: Agent Penguin was spotted outside the Notre Dame, was Santa kidnapped in Paris??


Dec 19th: No mountains unclimbed, no stones unturned, no TEA undived in the quest to find Santa..

Dec 24th: And in the final hours before the clock struck 12am, Rudolph beat the enemies in time to rescue Santa...and all was well again!


Dec 25th: Rudolph gets the day off *winks

Have a Happy Rein-laxing Christmas!!

Saturday, December 15, 2012

I Knew You Were Trouble

I think.. I think when it's all over, it just comes back in flashes, you know? It's like a kaleidoscope of memories and it just all comes back. But he never does.

I think part of me knew the second I saw him that this would happen. It's not really anything he said, or anything he did. It was the feeling that came along with it. And.. crazy thing is, I don't know if I'm ever gonna feel that way again. But I don't know if I should. 

I knew his world moved too fast and burned too bright. But I just thought, how can the devil be pulling you towards someone who looks.. so much like an angel when he smiles at you? Maybe he knew that, when he saw me. 

I guess I just lost my balance. I think that the worst part of it all wasn't losing him. It was losing me.

I don't know if you know who you are until you lose who you are
.

- Taylor Swift, I Knew You Were Trouble

Very Lana Del Ray-ish but more pop, less edge. Still, good song and good MV.

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Ma premiere entree de blog en francais (My first blog entry in French)


C'est ma première entrée de blog en français. Avec un peu d'aide de Google bien sûr...

La sensation est le même que le succès écrit le "Hello World" programme avec une langue nouvellement apprise programmation.

Si vous m'aviez dit il ya huit mois que je vais écrire en français aujourd'hui, j'ai très certainement ne sera pas parier là-dessus. Personnellement, je pense que je suis encore un débutant et j'ai encore beaucoup à apprendre. Aussi, si tant est que je peux passer mon niveau A1.3 examen en Décembre!

Ne jamais arrêter de rêver





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

[In English]

This is my first blog entry in French. With a little bit of help from Google of course..

The feeling is similar to successfully writing the "Hello World" program with a newly learnt programming language.

If you had told me eight months ago that I will write in French today, I most definitely will not bet on it. Personally, I think that I am still a beginner and I have much more to learn. Also, that is if I can pass my level A1.3 exam in December!

Never stop dreaming

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Freedom


I was in the winter of my life- and the men I met along the road were my only summer. At night I fell asleep with visions of myself dancing and laughing and crying with them. Three years down the line of being on an endless world tour and my memories of them were the only things that sustained me, and my only real happy times. I was a singer, not a very popular one, who once had dreams of being a beautiful poet- but upon an unfortunate series of events saw those dreams dashed and divided like a million stars in the night sky that I wished on over and over again- sparkling and broken. But I didn't really mind because I knew that it takes getting everything you ever wanted and then losing it to know what true freedom is. 

When the people I used to know found out what I had been doing, how I had been living- they asked me why. But there's no use in talking to people who have a home, they have no idea what its like to seek safety in other people, for home to be wherever you lie your head.

I was always an unusual girl, my mother told me I had a chameleon soul. No moral compass pointing due north, no fixed personality. Just an inner indecisiveness that was as wide and as wavering as the ocean. And if I said that I didn't plan for it to turn out this way I'd be lying - because I was born to be the other woman. I belonged to no one- who belonged to everyone, who had nothing- who wanted everything with a fire for every experience and an obsession for freedom that terrified me to the point that I couldn't even talk about- and pushed me to a nomadic point of madness that both dazzled and dizzied me.

Every night I used to pray that I'd find my people- and finally I did- on the open road. We had nothing to lose, nothing to gain, nothing we desired anymore except to make our lives into a work of art

LIVE FAST. DIE YOUNG. BE WILD. AND HAVE FUN.

I believe in the country America used to be. I believe in the person I want to become, I believe in the freedom of the open road. And my motto is the same as ever-
*I believe in the kindness of strangers. And when I'm at war with myself- I Ride. I Just Ride.*

Who are you? Are you in touch with all of your darkest fantasies?
Have you created a life for yourself where you're free to experience them?
I Have.
I AM F***ing Crazy. But I Am Free.
- Lana Del Rey

Sunday, November 04, 2012

Have.A.Little.Faith




Sunday, September 30, 2012

Mid-Autumn 2012

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!


Sunday, July 29, 2012

Can't Go Back


Some things you can't go back to
Some things need left alone
Don't mess with the memories of a life passed on

Oh the tumbling reservations at the heart of my mistakes
Oh some things you can't go back to cause you let them slip away

I don't wanna be a witness to a path that's overgrown
I don't wanna see this house not be a home
'Cause time has taken toll on what we couldn't see
No, I don't wanna be a witness to the end of you and me

How we're gonna make each moment better than the last?
How am I gonna make it better if I can't go back?

Oh the tumbling reservations at the heart of my mistakes
Oh some things you can't go back to cause you let them slip away

Oh some things you can't go back to

Monday, July 16, 2012

Drive

I am not a fanatic fan of Ryan Gosling but somehow he has always given me this impression of a talented actor. I thought it must be because of the many movies of his that I'd watched so I did a quick search and surprisingly The Notebook was the only one that came up in my checklist! Yet in my mind, he is the type of actor who possesses something unique and who is not famous due to looks (not that he is bad looking in any way) ..Like the Chinese always said "Sat Lek Phai" (Talented Group) instead of the "Ngau Cheong Phai" (Idol Group mostly for looking good) :þ

Maybe is his soulful expression or the way he could bring the characters he portrayed to life...

Either way, I recently watched this movie Drive which he played the lead role, and which only further ascertained his talent in my eyes. I had no inkling what the movie was about actually and the first 5minutes into the movie, I got it. He is the superb getaway driver that helps crooks to escape from crime scenes for a sum of payment while his daytime job is a mechanic as well as a part-time stuntman. He is basically pretty much a loner and has recently moved to a new apartment where he meets his neighbor Irene (Carey Mulligan) whom he don't really exchange hellos with until one fine day, he is there when Irene had some car troubles at a local supermarket. After the initial exciting start of him on one of his getaway driver job, the movie kinda slowed down and there weren't much dialogue because he, the loner, doesn't mix around much.

By the end of the movie though, I was speechless. Speechless because in the space of ~1.5hours, the entire story transformed so much with so many twists and surprises thrown in that it was impossible not to be. And I was really caught by surprise that Ryan's character (we never know his name, only he is The Driver) could be so kind one moment but determine and violent the next. And boy was he violent when he had to protect the ones he cared and revenge on the ones that caused harm. The Driver stood up and fight for what he felt was right. As shocking as it was, I was rooting for him all the way. Ryan totally nailed it.

Of course, the cast and the storyline sure helped too (I just found out Drive was adapted from a book. Now that would be an interesting read....)

Oh, and Drive was screened during the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, and I am not surprised it received a standing ovation. Indeed, I would stand up and clap myself hah..

One mistake though, and I blame it on the carelessness of the post-production who should have make away with that few frames or rather the special effects/makeup people. There was a scene [some spoiler coming up] when The Driver dragged one bad guy's hand onto a makeup counter in a strip club before repeatedly smashing the hand with a hammer. I am prettttty sure it looked obvious that all The Driver did was just hitting a spot on the counter beside the hand and not the hand itself. Meanwhile, the bad guy was screaming in pain as though his hand had been reduced to a bloody mess of flesh and bone. And if this glaring mistake wasn't enough, the guy was then pushed to the floor still groaning in pain holding his hand...wait, holding his hand??? Well, the hand still looked intact to me with little or no blood at all! LOL, that was the only goof I spotted that I burst out laughing in the middle of a supposedly intense scene. The next time we see the bad guy, he has this huge bandage around his hand ;)

All in all, it was a thrilling ride. Like a roller coaster, it was a slow ride up to the peak before we plunge down at lighting speed with sharp corners and 360° loops. And I would definitely watch future Ryan Gosling movies (hmmm..I think I have The Ides of March somewhere...*goes searching)

My Rating:

Check out the trailer here:



Friday, June 29, 2012

Summer's over

and it's time to go back to class. Well, technically my summer "vacation" was just one short week. But I guess can't take too long a timeout...I'd have surely returned everything back.

Hopefully the new term is not too crazy, afterall it's just level A1.2, or by normal education standards, probably just Elementary Level 2..

So welcome back, Sponge-Saturdays! Time for the weekly full-headed; crammed with new words, vocab, sentences, crazy masculine/feminine thingy and what not..

Lastly..
excusez mon français!


Sunday, May 27, 2012

Cafe 55

There is this new place in town.

Actually it's probably been around for a while but my rusty radar did not detect it until Shuey brought it up when the subject of where to eat next came up during our weekly lunch meet. Yup, we talk about what's for lunch in the coming week while we are still enjoying the current week's meal...


Cafe 55, also known as Coffee Atelier occupies the exact spot where the old Kopi Cine used to be. Confused with the dual names? Me too. So I went to do a little background research. Apparently Cafe 55 is part of Coffee Atelier; the latter being made up of 5 pre-war shophouses and the former taking up one of it. The other 4 comprises of 2 suites (all restored to their former glory and opened for short/long term stays), an art gallery, and Kopi, a coffee museum.

Sparsely decorated with paintings adorning the walls, the place was not overbearing, but neither was there much to shout about the ambiance and environment.

Cafe 55 offers a variety of food from breakfast menu to tapas, mains to desserts, as well as a selection of beverages and wines. We decided to order a sweet potato smoothie with smoked salmon, a bacon & mushroom carbonara spaghetti, and a vongole pasta.And as coffee lovers, coffee was definitely a must. So vital it was that coffee could possibly make or break recurrent visits.

Sadly the coffee did not meet our expectations and the time it took for the coffee to reach our tables (with only us and another table occupied at that moment) from the counter certainly did not help. The supposed-to-be-hot coffee had cooled and OEL complained her latte tasted as though it contained only milk. And if you are expecting fancy coffee art, nope, there were none.

The food on the contrary was presentable and pretty good. The sweet potato smoothie goes nicely with the taste of smoked salmon and baguette. The carbonara was sprinkled with lots of bacon pieces and sliced mushrooms (thumbs up from moi, the mushroom lover), and the vongole looked as if there were more clams than spaghetti.

Then came to settling the bill. We were actually  shocked at the price as we never thought the few things that we ordered could totaled up to that amount. Come to think of it, it's kinda pricey. And a glitch in their credit card payment system frustrated us further and caused us our plan to have dessert in a nearby place.

Overall, we agreed we might go back someday but coffee was definitely out of the question.

Coffee Atelier
47-55 Stewart Lane
George Town
10300 Penang, Malaysia

Saturday, May 05, 2012

Holes Inside


When all that you've tried, leaves nothing but holes inside
It seems like you're wired, to stay here held in time,
Cos nothing seems to change, oh no.
No, nothing's gonna change, at all.
I can see it in your face, the hope has gone away.

But if you hold tight, shadows will be lost in the light.
Oh cos sometimes, fate and your dreams will collide.
So don't walk away from me, 
Don't walk away from me, 
Don't walk away from me.

Your feet are stuck, no they cannot move.
Don't tell me that they're glued.
should they're far from.
At home, at ease but give sometime to breathe

With nothing seems to change, oh no.
No, nothing's gonna change, at all.
I can see it in your face, the hope has gone away.

But if we hold tight, shadows will be lost in the light.
Oh cos sometimes, fate and your dreams will collide.
So don't walk away from me, 
Don't walk away from me,
Don't walk away from me.

But everything will be ok, 
I know that it's so easy to say, 
But the pain inside will fade,
Please tell me that you'll stay.

If we hold tight, shadows will be lost in the light.
Oh cos sometimes, fate and your dreams can collide.
When all that you've tried, leaves nothing but holes inside.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Into the real world of scrapping I go..

I've always been careful to stay within the boundaries of digital scrapping as I felt my art or DIY had better chances of surviving in the virtual world where clicks of the mouse button could do wonders.

I would only looked longingly at the other side, the real world and admire the great stuff created by others. And the furthest I'd gotten was purchasing some actual materials. Those oh-so-beautiful-materials; from colorful papers to cute buttons to pretty ribbons to lovely embellishments....but they've only stayed in my drawer of creative things, never out from their nice packagings, smiling each time I paid them a visit, inviting me to start using them, which I never did....

Then I dunno what got into me yesterday. My hands took a life of its own and I started measuring, cutting, planning, glue-ing and voila...

My first handmade CD sleeve. 

Spring of Love

I kept it simple as I reckoned simple was always the best way to go.

So that's it, I've finally taken a step out of the digital scrapping parameters. I do not know what or when my next project will be. Perhaps when my creative cells get replenish and we'll see ☺

Monday, March 05, 2012

Skinny Love

The song that is haunting me right now...




Come on skinny love, just last the year
Pour a little salt, we were never here
My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my
Staring at the sink of blood and crushed veneer

I tell my love to wreck it all
Cut out all the ropes and let me fall
My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my
Right at the moment this order's tall

And I told you to be patient
And I told you to be fine
And I told you to be balanced
And I told you to be kind

And in the morning, I'll be with you
But it will be a different kind
'Cause I'll be holding all the tickets
And you'll be owning all the fines

Come on skinny love, what happened here?
Suckle on the hope in light brassiere
My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my
Sullen load is full, so slow on the split

And I told you to be patient
And I told you to be fine
And I told you to be balanced
And I told you to be kind

And now all your love is wasted
Then who the hell was I?
'Cause now I'm breaking at the britches
And at the end of all your lines

Who will love you?
Who will fight?
Who will fall far behind?

Come on skinny love
My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my
My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Behind 50

Behind 50: Food & Ambience
The name of the place had floated in and out of many a conversations so I decided to give it a try (twice since then actually). A quaint little place that I heard used to be a bicycle repair shop back in the days, Behind 50 turned out to be  quite a cozy spot with old school decors and memorabilia that attracts quite a crowd. We were lucky to be one of the first few customers and as the evening made way for a cool night, the place was quickly filled up with almost every seat taken.

Part of the walls were pasted with photographs of ordinary lives in Penang taken by local photogs. These were simply framed in black wooden frames which gave the whole place a kind of nostalgic feel. Other walls and empty spaces were knick-knacks from the olden days; an old bicycle here, an old typewriter there. There's even a classic LP record player with, not surprising, a Whitney Houston LP cover fronting the stack of records. Then there's the collection of old time matchboxes with beautiful poster girls, and toy figurines that most 80s babies would probably recognize. The ceiling was also an interesting sight; wooden planks with cane baskets lying on top. Oh, and the light bulbs. I have to mention the light bulbs. Ordinary incandescent bulbs but they are surrounded by silver teaspoons, giving them a kind of antique-ish look. Fits the place real nicely ☺

The menu came in these old classic story books with pages inserted.. a pretty novel idea I must say. There are also specials of the day on the blackboard made up of western poultry dishes. There's also the usual snacks, soup, pasta, and drinks. However, they seem to be always out of coffee beans for the "Behind 50 Coffee"..yup, for both the times we were there. Time to increase their stock intake perhaps *winks

Behind 50: Menu & Knick-knacks
I had the mushroom soup [why am I not surprise?] and I like it. Behind 50 makes it to the MY list of good mushroom soup places to go! The soup is filled with tiny pieces of chopped mushrooms - not too tiny that you can't even taste it - that made every spoonful a delight. Really, I would go there again just for that.

Next came the Siam Lobak (fried bean curd skin roll stuffed with minced chicken) that the waitress recommended to us. Crispy and not bad. The main course of Hawaiian chicken (grilled chicken with pineapple-based sauce, and baked potato, mixed vege as sides) was ok as well.

Drinks were chocolate milkshake and hot honey lemon for each visit respectively. You can never go wrong with honey lemon I guess but I had had better tasting milkshakes. So no more milkshakes for me at Behind 50.

Overall, Behind 50 is worth going back to. Located at the end of Muntri Street where Muntri meets Love Lane, it's almost peaceful sitting there and watching the occasional car passes by, reminiscing the good old carefree childhood days gone by while sipping on hot honey lemon drinks and snacking on delicious mushroom soups and Siam Lobaks... (plus it's neither warm nor stuffy in here with strategically placed ceiling fans and air curtains).

P/S: The name Behind 50 comes from the place being situated behind a pre-war house with a number 50 in its address.

Address:
Behind 50
Muntri Street, 
10200 George Town
Penang

Wednesday, February 08, 2012

iPhone: Siege Hero

I've been pretty occupied lately that this blog had practically gone into hibernation hence I think it's time to do something about it - right on the last night of a long festive weekend...

In truth, I am kinda in the iPhone games mood and had been checking out the top free games on App Store. Most are still in their many stages of completion - halfway here, a quarter there - but I actually completed playing the game that at the beginning I thought I would most unlikely be hooked, in just 2 days.

Siege Hero: The Cover
(click image to enlarge)
At the first glance, most would say Siege Hero is just probably a rip-off of Angry Birds. Indeed the concept is similar; throwing weapons at a fortress of soldiers (or green pigs in AB's case) to bring them down, scoring more points the less tries needed. However, while I never did warm up to AB - of which I still don't - it took me no time to get all determine to finish Siege Hero.

Somehow the little cute, evil ninjas/soldiers/vikings/red indians/cannibals (depending on which level you are at) standing there on the fortresses, wickedly inviting you to take them down work so well. And to hear their sinister chuckling-s when you fail to do so just fires you up to try harder and harder and harder still, not stopping until the blocks of woods/bricks/steels are in ruins. [Yup, that was how "obsessed" I got..]

Siege Hero: The Storylines
(click image to enlarge)
The game consists of 3 major levels, cleverly called 'Ages'; the Fortress Age, the Age of Discovery, and the Age of Pirates. Each 'Age' is made up of 3 storylines with 21 stages each i.e 63 stages/Age i.e 189 scenes and hours and hours of gameplay. The storylines are similar and differs only in the settings. They start with a prologue of evil conquerors closing in on peaceful dwellers (portrayed as adorable girls) and take them as hostages. The backgrounds are nicely drawn (there's day/night, sun/rain/snow, etc) and the characters all cutesy - even the bad minions.

As you play on, new weapons are introduced. You start with the basic rock throwing and then you have a 3-rocks-in-one-go, bomb, fire jar, oil barrel, and a grappling hook to pull things apart. What you don't have however, is a choice. You don't get to choose which weapon to use, no sir, you don't. Instead, they are given to you in arranged sequences. That is where the game gets interesting. Siege Hero is not a throw-and-hope-you-hit game, it actually requires you to strategize, however little it may be, and in some cases making use of whatever physics knowledge you may possess. The lineup could be a hook, rock, fire but if you don't target them at the correct points, the fortress ain't gonna come tumbling down, and "Siege Failed" is all that awaits. If you are lucky, you get 4 rocks in some stages but others might only have 2 fires in store for you. So use your weapons wisely....

Siege Hero: The Gameplays
(click image to enlarge)
And if you think that is all, these game developers bring the game up another notch. They place the captives within the fortresses and being the hero that you are, you are suppose to ensure that your hits do not kill them or *poof you'll be seeing angel wings. But well, I have to admit, sometimes collateral damage happens *whistles

Overall, Siege Hero is an addictive, fun game that works your brains at the same time. And frankly, I was frustrated at times when I was stuck at some crazily difficult stage and just couldn't proceed. But the euphoria of seeing the walls coming down when you got it all right......

P/S: There is an Age of Cowboy in the making and let's hope to see that out soon *fingers crossed

My Rating:

Sunday, January 01, 2012

2011 was the year

  • polka-dotted by many goods to the not-so-goods to the not-good-at-alls..
  • I co-authored a second advertorial that was again published in The Star.
  • cafes and restaurants became regular features in the quest to enjoy the perfect cuppa and delicacies, especially a particular mushroom quiche, salmon tartare as well as a certain "Taurus"..
  • I was ecstatic over my first Victoria Beckham sunglasses that I dedicated a post just for it ☺
  • with sporadic recipes and cooking sessions.
  • I found the bottled chili flakes for my spicy olio pasta so I no longer needed to rely on Domino's Pizza.
  • of iPhone games craze no thanks to super adorable OmNom of "Cut The Rope" fame; with a new category added to the blog for it.
  • yours truly got her Green Belt after sweating over the many measurements, charts, and tools that came prior to it.
  • of the Penang heritage trail with the girls so I could now proudly say, "Been there, done that!"
  • I attended the first George Town Literary Festival, and even got my "The Gift of Rain" book autographed by the author himself. 
  • I managed 10 books + 5 comics, registering a rise in my book-reading graph from 2009 & 2010. 
  • where there were so many new TV series incoming that I almost had a hard time allocating time for each yet somehow managed quite nicely..
  • of a number of weddings, including my only brother, cousins, and even one all the way in Phuket which was a definite first.
  • I looked back at the many good times we had as kids and realized how we'd all grown up in our own ways and the memories left bittersweet aftertaste..
  • I was caught by surprise at the occurrence of certain events that changed my perspectives and resulting in me threading ever so cautiously after..
  • I had to finally admit that some things or people were just not what they were portrayed to be, and that perhaps we had reached the junctions where we must part ways..
  • iPhone became a serious photography tool with albums for each day of the week, plus a new wide/macro lens to capture the small details in the big pictures ☺
  • with a couple of new found hobbies that I never would have thought about indulging in but was glad that I did.
  • a little bee decided to land on my neck and yes, it was better than her rabbit ☺
  • a few items were finally under my name for good.
  • I made some online purchases and I think I am a little hooked!
  • I had high teas at high places.
  • Damon and I were still misunderstood beings LOL
2012 is a year with much changes and blank pages...but while we are at it - perhaps throw in an Acacia as well as a pair of new shoes - let's take our strides to meet the new year ahead. C'est La Vie ~


HaPpY NeW YeAr 2012!