A little awareness might go a long way

March 27th 2010. Earth Hour. I supported.

Peace be on Earth :)

One morning in Rome

I woke up to specks of white raining down from the sky and it actually did not register in my mind immediately (blame it on lack of sleep maybe). A few seconds later, it dawned on me;

"It's snowing! It's Snowing! It's S-N-O-W-I-N-G!!"

Yes, I'd never seen snow before and I had not expected it to come so suddenly. Pretty heavy snow too in fact. The evening news was all about it. Apparently it was extremely unusual for snow to fall in Rome - in fact, the last time the capital saw any significant snowfall was back in 1986! - livinginrome

Was I lucky or what?

Mind you, it was freakingly COLD that day. But we had no time to waste as it was our last day in the capital with a lot to cover still; Path of Illuminati being the mission.

So with our teeth clenched, we bravely ventured onward...

P/S: Oh and you cannot believe how umbrella sellers just popped up everywhere. A small umbrella could cost you €5! That's when your bargaining skills is put to test and you might just get it for €3. Not much difference it seems but multiply that by 5 and you'll see the significance.

The Time Traveler's Wife - A Novel

It took me almost 3 mths to complete The Time Traveler's Wife - the novel. I watched the movie in Dec '09 and I knew how I said I'd moved the book up the queue to be read first. I even brought the book to work as my lunch read (my colleagues should be able to vouch for that) but I guessed things such as climbing up the Geo Challenge ladder (I'm still on top, right?) and the season-continuation of my oh-so-awesome-tv-series got in the way..

Or could it be for the first time a book failed to capture my attention?

I must admit progress was slow and a few times the corner of my eye even caught other books on the bookshelves beckoning me to pick them up and read them instead. Sadly I did strayed as well.

Perhaps my expectations had been set a little too high after watching the movie. Somehow the way the book went on and on being narrated by Henry and Clare alternately felt kinda draggy toward mid-span. The reason I finally finished the book was only because I purposely brought the book with me to Europe so it was the only reading material to pass the time in-flight/on-train.

And I so could not believe what happened between Clare and Gomez! Thank you for removing those scenes from the movie.

Oh btw Mindy, the ending in the book was interesting and creative but yeah, the one in the movie felt more romantic :P

-------------------------------------Spoiler alert!-------------------------------------------

The one major detail in the book that I felt surpassed the movie was the extend of Henry's injury that confined him to a wheelchair. To not be able to walk because you couldn't feel your legs can never be worse than losing the ability to walk because your feet were amputated! Such was how the book made it to be..shockingly horrible.

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

Overall, the book was enjoyable at the beginning but became less so toward the middle, and didn't quite went out with the big bang that I might had been anticipating.

My Rating:

Of Mornings Gone, Afternoon-Rots & Late Nites

Digested an entire 16-ep Korean series this week among others. Korean series/films have never been a favorite actually. Come to think of it maybe it was because there were no sources previously. Provide them and I'll most likely watch every series there is out there..

My Girl turned out to be quite nice although at the start, the girl seemed annoying. The guy was the cool type common in love dramas from Taiwan, Korea and Japan. Then there was this other girl and that other guy. The love triangle/square. But the chemistry between the main 2 casts was there making it an enjoyable series overall. Ooh, I'll love to experience snowy winters someday :)

The hermit crab in me finally crawled out of her shell this afternoon. Made use of the replacement holiday to take care of banking matters and as usual bill payments. I wonder why they don't make it a linked system at chim-bank. Imagine if you wanna cancel your credit card and activate another, they will need to call the KL HQ and have them do it for you. Or you can always call them yourselves. So it's kinda irrelevant to setup customer service counters, don't you think? Well guess what, there was no one at the end of line today.

Next, brunch @ Edo Ichi. Rainbow roll was nice. Complimentary scoop of green tea ice-cream too. Last day for the offer tho, the waiter informed. "Tomorrow they will be charged."

Lastly, or rather 2nd lastly, Fettes Residence is not your next upscale address for nothing. The units are HUGE (min 2k sqft). From the huge double main door right up to the 4+1 bedrooms and walk-in-wardrobe, impressive's the word. Equally impressive was the price. Starting at 875k with an additional 5k per floor, 35 floors in total. But unobstructed sea view only begins from 18th storey onwards. Surprisingly they have studio units too. 1 bedroom, 1k sqft. No surprise those units were all sold out.

Lastly, Gunners got thrashed by MU this morning. Oh yes, We are back! *grins

East Meets West

One fine Sat morning @ Pavilion, east sat beside west...

... nibbling scones and sipping tea...

...while soothing flute tunes filled the air...

...and danced around the trees.

My TV Dinner

Spicy Olio Pasta [though it ain't spicy]

Inhale

2009 was the year

• storms came and went. When it felt like darkness was descending, the skies cleared and light was seen at the end of the tunnel.
  
  
• I watched movies that touched me, tickled me, teared me, thrilled me. Not to mention the countless series that literally got me eating out of the palm of their hands
• that kicked off the smoothie craze and the breakfast-brunch project.
• I saw 2 football matches - live! Though the intended person I was so looking forward to watch ended up just warming the bench.
  
  
• I fell in love with Paris and Rome (and all place Europe). And spent a lot in the process too.
  
• I felt more thankful than ever for being blessed with sights in order to be able to see the world & all her perfections and imperfections.
• that I could cross out Ipoh from my places-to-visit list. Plus Penang truly has it all *winks
• I paused and took a walk down memory lane via the emails in my Yahoo! inbox. And I realized life is a bunch of crossroads and we are different after each of them.
• I had a taste of life on the business class
  
• I had the opportunity to experience autumn in the States :)
  
  


• I drove on the left side for the first time, messed up the wipers and the signal light switches along the way, but still survived going places without GPS
  
• I met some great people that helped made life's journey a more pleasurable one
• I spent Xmas night enjoying a cuppa @ Pavilion KL
  
  
• I sorta made my 1st resolution ever ie to read all the books in queue. I managed only 10.
  
• I played Guesstures with a bunch of friends right into 2010!

2010 is the year where there will be new discoveries, new experiences and perhaps even a few surprises in store. So let's put on our seat-belts and hold on tight as the show continues.

HaPpY NeW YeAR 2010!!

It's a CAKE christmas!

I've had log cake, fruit cake, Chicago cheesecake, Tiramisu, "almost" blueberry cheese cake (which got overruled) ...

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Feva

The countdown to the world's most beautiful game June 2010 has officially begun. And that means we're gonna be surrounded by news, articles, advertisements, promotions..you name it, they've got it.

Mine comes in the form of an email from Emirates airline. Have you booked your package for the 2010 FIFA World Cup? Apparently they are offering an all-inclusive package ie flights, match tickets, accommodations and transfers to and from the stadium. All you need to do is sign up, select your package and let them worry about the rest. No hassle, no fuss, just need your Visa or MasterCard.


Curious how much a trip will cost, I tried booking...

Page 1: Package search
You get to select your base camp ie the city where you will stay and it doesn't have to be some "ulu" place just because your selected match is gonna be conducted there. Uh-uh, you can stay wherever you want in S. Africa and you will be transferred (by road or by AIR) to and from your matches. Very convenient I must say..


Which team? England (if it wasn't already obvious)
Which match? England vs USA
Base camp? Cape Town (where all 2012 survivors will head and it's not called cape of good hope for nothing)
Class of travel? Okla just economy will do.
Hotel? 2 star or more (cheapest choice avail.)

A Please wait, we're searching to find you the best deals later...

Page 2: Hotel selection
5 choices of hotels ranging from 2stars to 5stars:

I din go further. There isn't a need, not after a look at the starting prices!

Suddenly it hit me. How much am I actually paying for the match tix alone? And what feng-shui seat will I be getting? What if they just assign me some crappy-nobody-wants-to-buy seat (though I believe it's gonna be packed), 3 stories high from the field and players look like dots scurrying around but charge me with a crazy amount? I want my money's worth!

Turns out there was nothing to be concerned about. The FAQ states

Q. What type of match tickets are on offer? Are they premium seats
within the stadium?
A. The Emirates 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa packages provide CAT01 tickets for all matches, at any of the participating stadiums. Please see diagram below depicting CAT01 seating in blue.


Premium seats they are indeed.

And right below that, a question catches my eye:

Q. I want to watch the game but my wife doesn't. Can I buy part of the ticket?

*chuckles

The Time Traveler's Wife

Went to watch this a few weeks back and I found it pretty touching. A genetic disorder caused Henry to time travel randomly. He cannot control the place or the time period. It could be the future or it could be the past. He met his future wife one day who already loved him all her life as Clare first met Henry as a child. And the film is about how they both tried their best to lead normal lives and the challenges they faced.

The ending was kinda sad which was what made the movie so moving. And they told me the ending's different in the book and that it was better than the movie's. I've not read the book yet although I'm not sure if a happy ending is what I would prefer. Cause well in life, not everything gets a happily ever after. And they serve to remind us to never take anything for granted.

Oh, and did I say that the film took place in Chicago? Ahh..the skyline brought on a sense of familiarity and it felt good :)

My Ratings:

This One's For You

I was told Chicago was famous for deep dish pizza. I was reminded a few times to go try it. "A MUST TRY!" she said. Even went as far as to prepare a map with the restaurant marked in a big red X for me.

So I took a train to Chicago one Saturday, asked around for the location of the famous Giordano's and waited 35 minutes (dat's rite thirty-five minutes) for 1 personal stuffed pizza.

35 mins later....

1 stuffed pizza arrived, cut into 6 humongous slices, each slice as thick as the width of 3 fingers put together.

I only managed 1 slice. When I asked for the bill and a box, the waiter was shocked by the leftovers. "ONLY 1 SLICE??!" I smiled an embarrassed smile and mumbled that I had a train to catch. In truth, I was so full and even that first slice was hard work! Plus it wasn't as good as I thought it would be after all the praises she sang about it.

Anyway this one's for you, Soo Huey :P







Updated: My SD card corrupted on me so I dun have a cloud gate picture of my own. Anyway here's one from the web (I purposely chose the best angle and view so it'll look fascinating..must give face shuey ma lol). Image courtesy of dabonbb. And as you can see, it is just a blob of bean-shape liquid-like mirror :P

Once upon a time in Nazi occupied France...

It's been ages since I reviewed a movie. So here's one I watched recently, my first in a cinema in weeks!

Inglourious Basterds is a war film set in WWII during the Nazi occupation in France but with an alternate historical universe. It covers two plots to assassinate the Nazi political leadership (Hitler and gang), one by a French Jewish woman (whose family was killed when she was young) and another by a group of American soldiers known as the Basterds (led by Brad Pitt). The film is shown in chapters, each chapter bringing the viewers closer to the planned D-Day.

At the start, the film was serious, tense and sad even. I mean how could war be a joyous occasion, right? However, the film got hilarious toward the end which I thought was a perfect way to end things. I had a good laugh watching the characters and listening to their dialogues (yes, it was a more dialog less action type of movie but sit through it and you will be well-rewarded). I also loved how they made use of different languages in 1 film - French, German, English. Reading English subtitles was never this fun before :)

But the most outstanding of all was Christopher Waltz's character - Standartenführer Hans Landa aka "The Jew Hunter" (yup, even Brad Pitt was overshadowed!) He was nicknamed so due to his keen ability to think like a Jew and therefore never failed to locate them.

"I love my unofficial title, precisely because I have earned it." - Landa

Landa was the bad guy and you honestly wanted to hate him but you just couldn't help yourself to like and laugh with him. Waltz played Landa to perfection and the film would not be the same without him. Even Quentin Tarantino, the director of the film acknowledged so;

"I think that Landa is one of the best characters I've ever written and ever will write, and Christoph played it to a tee… It's true that if I couldn't have found someone as good as Christoph I might not have made Inglourious Basterds." [taken from Inglourious Basterds feature]

And for that delightful character, Waltz won the best actor award at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. Recommended to watch :)

My Ratings:

My Sleeping Chronicles

My sleep pattern is programmed. Most of the time I don't need the alarm clock to wake me up unless on really tired days/nites..I usually find myself up ahead of the alarm clock on weekdays. On weekends, I used to wake up at 9.30am until I moved last year. Then my time readjusted and I can finally tell me ppl I sleep till almost noon now :P (Everyone was always asking y did I wake up so early during the weekends?)

At first I was worried about jetlag during my trip to the US. Luckily for me, I din have any..I was awake when it was light outside and slept when it was dark. Only one funny change happened to me.

I went to outlet stores on my first day and only got back to the hotel around 8/9in the evening. I guess after the long-haul flight, I was exhausted so I took a nap before waking up again at 10pm. Lo and behold that pattern stuck with me for the next 2wks! Every nite without fail, I needed to nap at around 8/9. When I thought it was ok to just rest my eyes for 10seconds, it was 10pm the nxt minute...Nap place? Always the sofa.

And I so wanted to watch all the primetime shows - BigBangTheory, HIMYM, SUPERNATURAL but guess what, primetime TV was between 8-9pm every night! Supernatural was on Thursday and that ep had Paris Hilton as guest star. I made sure I was back at the hotel in front of the TV by then and ooh Dean and Sam appeared on screen..what better way to spend one's evening, eh?

I only lasted until the first commercial break....