Juno

Caught the movie Juno just before the Oscar.
This is the dark horse film among the Oscar nominees much like "Little Miss Sunshine" from 2006.

Ellen Page, just 21years of age, shines in this comedy about a teenage girl faced with an unplanned pregnancy, after having a one-time sexual encounter with her nerdy best friend. Not wanting to give away too much on the storyline, the movie manages to avoid being preachy or judgmental over issues like teenage pregnancy, choice, or adoption.

The role of Juno earned Ellen Page a nomination for Best Actress and the film was also up for major categories like Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and Best Director. For a low budget film, this is indeed something to shout about. You might be interested to know that the screenplay was written by Diablo Cody, an ex-stripper! The film won 1 Oscar out of the 4 nominations, and guess what, it was the screenplay that got the nods from the panel! Kudos to Diablo!

In the film, one commendable thing is the artistic use of drawings in some of the opening sequence and the seasons transitions. When the first scene shows the winter landscape , there is a pencil sketch of the word "Winter", this is followed with Spring and Autumn. And the drawing somehow juxtapose to a drawing of the lead character Juno walking into a grocery store and then suddenly the drawing become real. Duno how to describe but you will know when you watched it :)

MacBook

I've got a Mac! I've finally succumbed to the dark side :)

I bought a white MacBook, the cheapest of the range, with the following specs:

13.3"
2.0 GHz
Intel Core 2 Duo
2 GB RAM
80 GB Hard Drive

Come loaded with Leopard OS, 1st time using a Mac so lots of things to learn. Very excited with the buy :)

A Thousand Splendid Suns

This article appear on zaobao, its about the second book "A Thousand Splendid Suns" from Khaled Hosseini who wrote Kite Runner.

完颜藉

　　“让孩子知道家族的根源很重要。父母的历史是一笔财富。”

　 　畅销小说《追风筝的人》（The Kite Runner）和《一千个灿烂的太阳》(A Thousand Splendid Suns)的作者胡赛尼(Khaled Hosseini)说的这句话，让我内心赞赏。他是移居美国27年的美国籍阿富汗裔作家。他像许多旅居外国的作家一样，是“通过镜子的碎片”回看祖国阿富 汗的。镜子的碎片？说的该是从通讯社发出有关阿富汗零零星星的新闻。像阿富汗这样的常年动乱的国家，胡赛尼无法亲身回国经历国家的苦难，也只好靠“镜子的 碎片”探听阿富汗的消息了。从碎片中，胡赛尼当然看到美国最近在没有预先知会巴基斯坦政府就轰炸巴基斯坦境内的基地组织（基地组织）藏匿地点。我不知道， 对这个事件，他有什么想法。他会不会觉得，美国轰炸巴基斯坦跟美国控制阿富汗，是不是同样是侵略？美国人当然认为不是，他们认为是以牙还牙，基地组织在美 国境内制造九一一恐怖事端，如果不算侵略，那美国炸巴基斯坦的基地组织组织，甚至操纵阿富汗政权也就不是侵犯阿富汗的主权了。

　 　但这类问 题，往往一时很难解说清楚。倒是胡赛尼的《一千个灿烂的太阳》里叙述的故事，情节却不像阿富汗的局势那么复杂和难以理喻。两个身世不同的女子，因意想不到 的事故（人事和战争），被逼嫁给同一个男人。两人由势不两立、互怀敌意到后来变成患难与共的同性知己。《一千个灿烂的太阳》里有爱情，有恩怨、有妒忌、有 情杀还有战乱（苏联军入侵阿富汗、塔利班上台的故事背景）。但整个内容，依我的看法，都在歌颂困难重重中的阿富汗妇女的伟大。引用胡赛尼自己的话：他希望 这部小说，能给披着从头套到脚的黑服的阿富汗妇女形象，添加几笔彩色与深度。所以小说的书名就出自诗人赛依伯的诗句：

　　人们数不清她的屋顶上有多少轮皎洁的明月／数不清她的墙壁后那一千个灿烂的太阳。

　　诗句里的她，原意虽指阿富汗首都，但到了胡赛尼手里，她就是“她”了。

The Kite Runner

Having read the bestseller by Khaled Hosseini sometime back, I was looking forward to watch the film to see if it is as good as the book.

It did not disappoint. The beginning sequence where they show the producer, director, film company etc were done in a very arty way, fused with Arabian music, composed by Alberto Iglesias. I got to know this Spanish after watching some of his works including Pedro Almodóvar's films like
Volver, Talk to Her and All about my mother.

Right from the start, I was captivated by the cinematography, which they filmed in China's Xinjiang province that borders Afghanistan.

If you have read my review on the book in one of my earlier post or have read the book, you will know that the story is about the friendship between Amir and Hassan. Amir is the rich, pampered child and Hassan is the servant's son who taught Amir the skills in kite flying and is always there to protect Amir from being bullied. The story is told from Amir's perspective as he relates about the brotherly love between him and Hassan, the war that break out in Kabul - his hometown, and the relationship between him and his father.

I think the most important message the story wants to put across is in the tagline "There is a way to be good again". Amir did something wrong and tries to be good again to redeem when he had wrongly done.

The child actors are all first time actors and the young Hassan is really commendable for his performance that he won a best young actor award in the Critics Choice Award. Due to a controversy scene in the movie, DreamWorks, the American studio that financed the film, postponed its release date for a month so that the child actors and their families could be moved to Dubai. Under the movie deal, the studio is also paying for the child actors education till a certain age if I remember correctly.

Read a trivia that in many of the kite flying shots, the children were actually pulling balloons and the kites were added in post-production.

The movie is directed by Marc Forster, a german who also did Finding Neverland which I enjoyed. He will also be directing the next Bond film Quantum of Solace, quite exciting to see new directors coming up and producing good quality films.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Caught this movie last night. What a cheem title "Scaphandre et le papillon, Le" is French and the English title is The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

The film is adapted from a book about the real life story of Elle magazine France editor, who met with an accident and suffered a stroke. His entire body was paralyzed except his left eye. With his strong determination, he managed to write a book by communicating with a very patient nurse, not by talking since he can't talk but with his left eye! The nurse sat down with him every day to pen down what he wanted to say. For example, the nurse will read out the alphabets a, b, c, d, etc and the man will blink his left eye once it hits the right character. This goes on for ages and you can just imagine the amount of patience just to go through the whole ordeal.

The man writes about his feelings and relates the torture he has to go through like being trapped inside his body. The movie flashes images of a diver being trapped inside a diving bell, and with the yearning to be release of the suffering, using butterfly as a metaphor, that probably explains the book and film title. I anyhow guess one, do correct me if I have interpreted it wrongly :) Unfortunately, he died shortly after the book was published.

The movie was depressing to watch, seeing the man suffering and what he has to go through in pain. A good film nevertheless and I enjoyed it.

To date, it won several international awards and is nominated for Oscars in the following categories:

• Best Achievement in Cinematography
• Best Achievement in Directing
• Best Achievement in Editing
• Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published

Strangely, the film was not nominated for Oscar in the Best Foreign Film category, but it did win in this category in the Golden Globes and also grabbed the Best Director award.

Atonement

Its the Oscar season and I choose to watch this to see if it is as good as the number of nominations it has.

The movie is up for 7 Oscars in the following categories:

• Best Achievement in Art Direction
• Best Achievement in Cinematography
• Best Achievement in Costume Design
• Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score
• Best Motion Picture of the Year
• Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
• Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published

A lot of minor awards and certainly not a best picture calibre. The film is still nice to watch, and it talks about how a teenage girl tries to change the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister's lover of a crime he did not commit.

Even though Keira Knightly is featured in the movie poster, she has a very weak role and is overshadowed by the 13 year old teen character who plays her younger sister. This young unknown actress Saoirse Ronan really shine in her role. I google her and she is just 14, and she certainly deserve a nomination for best supporting actress even though she is not likely to win, considering the other power weights. I say, her time will come.

The music feature in the movie deserve a mention here too. Dario Marianelli, the one behind the soundtrack is up and coming, he already won the Golden Globe for Best Original Score in a Motion Picture. In the movie, he has this unique use of an extraordinary percussion-like sound, the sound of an antique typewriter, to blend in nicely with the story. Whenever the actress uses the typewriter to pen her thoughts, you will hear the music blending in. In this modern computer age where you have keyboards that let you type silently, somehow the sound of those old typewriters has a certain kind of special appeal :)

Start of a new year

A new day of a new year has begun. Yes I know, I have not been actively updating my blog, so please be patient and don't give up hope on me while I try my best to blog more often :)

Viva Las Vegas!

Initially we only intended to spend our vacation in SF but happens one day when I was surfing and somehow clicked on one of the tourist sites which leads me to South West airline promotion. A return trip to LV from SF costs only usd100! include tax somemore, where to get right, so I quickly booked it!

If I were to take a bus from SF to LV, it takes like 10hours, if train I need to change somewhere and it didnt occur to me that I could fly to LV at such a cheap fare.





























View from my hotel room, stayed at the Hilton Grand Vacation. Lesson to be learn about hotels in LV, they are usually quite cheap cos they want you to spend at the casino. I didnt know so after I booked the Hilton, then happen to talk to my colleague and he said I should have stayed in one of those casino hotels. I did a check and those nice casino hotels really cos cheaper than the one that I've booked :( Didn't do my homework properly, cos I assume that hotels are all expensive here.

Here you see the many adverts on the various performance, concerts, shows you can catch:




















Elton John, Celine Dion performing at Caesar's Palce















Toni Braxton at the Flamingo, not a good shot, kena blocked by one building but have to take it , didnt know she has such a nice figure :)




















Ooh-la-la, no, this is not Toni Braxton's backview :)




















Cirque Du Soleil at Bellagio

Another ooh-la-la show at the Tropicana.

We didn't catch any of the show, too pricey lah and time were quite limited as we only have 3D2N in LV. Spent rest of the time relaxing, walking, enjoying all the nice casino views that LV has to offer.

Downtown

We spent the next day walking around the town, taking in the sights.

San Francisco is known for its hilly roads. We spent almost half of the day on foot, up the hill, down the valley , it helps when it's windy and the weather is not humid.
















Didn't take the famed cable car cos the queue is so so long, packed with tourists so usually we just commute by bus or their trolley. Cable car not cheap usd5 per ride but it brings you from Fisherman Wharf to Union Square, their Orchard Road, all the shopping malls are there.





























This is Lombard Street, the world's crookiest street. If you take a closer look, you can send the many bends the cars have to navigate through.




















You see the Tower up there? That's the Coit Tower, you can't miss it from the SF skyline. If the name sounds familiar, yes Swensen restaurant actually got one ice cream named Coit Tower too! By the way, if you want to go up to get a good view, trust me, save your $. We paid to go up, not cheap hor, and the view is obstructed by those plastic panels, can't take any nice shots at all















I took this at the top of the hill, bottom of Coit Tower, nice place to see the sunset.

Yosemite

Yosemite - pronounced as "Yeo-si-mee-teh". Luckily didnt malu myself, cos I actually thought it is to be read as "Yeos-might", don't laugh :)

I didn't want to drive cos don't feel confident driving in a foreign land so no choice have to take the local tour. Beware though, it's a 14 hours day tour, paid usd125 per pax, excluding tips. In USA, when you dine at restaurant, day tour etc all have to give tips so alot of hidden costs.

Yosemite is one of the natural wonders of the world so since come all the way to San Frans didnt want to miss it.

Most of the tour to Yosemite end in October cos nearing to Nov and Dec, there are snows so usually they don't conduct tours during this period. We were there early Nov and luckily found one operator that still run this tour.

The coach bus (big one, got toilet inside type) came to pick us up at our hotel at about 7am. I counted, including us, there were like 15 people. We cross the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge at sunrise. We stopped for refreshment at around 9.30am and reached Yosemite at about 11am. Yes 4 hours there , and a dreadful 4 hours back.

We have until 4pm to wander around, the sights were just magnificent! All so picturesque and you don't need a special camera to take postcards kind of pictures!

Sausalito

Sausalito is a nice quaint little town, about an hour ferry ride from Fisherman Wharf. It's like going to Pulau Ubin from Changi :)

If you are more time and have the energy, you can also cycle there, not sure how long it takes but Sausalito is just on the other side of the Golden Gate bridge. You can also opt for a ferry and cycle combo but we chose the 2 way ferry instead.















Sausalito has art galleries, cafes, souvenir shops and waterfront restaurants where you can see San Francisco from across the bay.































We also took a bus ride to the area just next to Golden Gate bridge. Here, you can a very nice view of the bay and a close up view of the bridge.

San Francisco Day 1 & 2

I am back 2 weeks from my vacation in San Francisco but have yet to update my blog. The hotels that I stayed does not come with free internet access and I didnt bring my laptop along so have to refresh my memory now. Hopefully the pictures will help :)

The flight bounded for SF was about 15hours with an hour transit at Seoul. It was a pleasant surprise for wife and I when we boarded the plane and found out that it is a new fleet, the 777-300ER aircraft. So swaku cos so far in my business trip, I have not seated on this fleet before. It was also by chance that I chose this flight. There were 2 daily departures to SF, one is the morning via Seoul, the other in the evening via Hong Kong. If I have chosen the latter, I would be flying the normal fleet.

This is the new Economy Class, with roomier seats and bigger screen. I am the sort who don't really take note of the type of fleet, what Boeing, Airbus, 777, 747 etc. If you have asked me before, what kind of plane I flew on, I will not be able to tell you. All I care are the movies and the music I will get to enjoy :)

But now having enjoyed this new fleet, next time when I booked a flight, I will take note and check if its a 777-300ER. I sat on a 777-300 last week to Delhi on a business trip, I thought it is the same, no no, must have the "ER", dunno what it stands for though, LOL :)

Arrived at SF on the 31st Oct at around 1pm. We stayed near the Fisherman Wharf area so it was quite convenient to get around.

We took a cruise to see the Golden Gate bridge, you can kill 2 birds with one stone if you are not taking the Alcatraz tour cos while on board the cruise, you will be able to catch a glimpse of the famous Alcatraz prison.






























Fisherman Wharf area, that's where Pier 39 is. You will see a lot of sea lions sun bathing at the deck and making a lot of noise, seeking attention :)

Car Boot Sale

Had a car boot sale on a Sunday morning, an event organised by SPC Petrol. I have always enjoyed going to flea market , looking for good bargains. I enjoyed having my stall as well and so far, I have setup flea market stall in Clarke Quay, Tanglin Mall and the previous car boot sale was held at the Indoor Stadium. This time round, it is held at Downtown East, Pasir Ris.

Clearing my CDs and other barung barung.













The weather was quite hot in the morning even though I was allocated a shady spot. Unfortunately the dark clouds gathered at about noon and it started to pour at around 2pm. So sway and the rain was so heavy and persistent, it lasted till 6pm. Some friends came over to support but due to the rain, we have to 'close shop', really dampen the mood.



















On the positive side, managed to clear some of my stuff and pocket about $100 profit.

Coffee Bean Puzzler

A friend send this to me and oh no, my brain is in a mess!

"
Find the man between the coffee beans.

Doctors have concluded that if you find the man in 3 seconds, your right half of your brain is better developed than most people. If you find the man between 3 seconds and one minute, then your right half of the brain is developed normally. If you find the man between one minute and 3 minutes, then the right half of your brain is functioning slowly and you need to eat more protein. If you have not found the man after 3 minutes your right half of your brain is a mess, and the only advice is to look more for these types of exercises to make that part of the brain stronger.

The man really is there.

In fact, once you find him, you cannot miss him afterwards.

"

Singapore Bay Run

I participated in this year Bay Run on Sunday, this being my 2nd attempt.
The run formerly known as Safra Sheares Bridge Run was better organised compared to last year. This time, three and a half lanes on the ECP stretch of the Sheares Bridge were reserved for the run, leaving one half passable for on-going traffic. Last year quite pathetic, just one lane for the runners and everybody had a hard time finding space to run.

I signed up for the Non Competitive 12km run, not competing with time, just hoping to complete the run as this is my first time trying to cover this distance. The most I have covered was 10km in the StanChart run. My time was about 90mins, quite slow, mine is more like a jog :) I clocked 40mins for 6km, by the time I reached 10km, time taken was about 1hr 15mins liao. Last 2km duno why took so long, so tempted to just walk but managed to perservere and reached the finishing line.

Later that night, was abit shocked to hear from the news about the death of a young army officer during his 21km run. He passed out after completing the race. A sad case indeed, may he rest in peace.

HK's storm alert 'outdated'

From yesterday's news, like what I wrote in my earlier blog, we felt it was a false alarm as well, maybe the authorities just playing safe:

Storm alert system out of date: Observatory chief
Aug 19, 2007

The typhoon warning system is decades out of date and requires an overhaul to avoid the chaotic scenes that followed the hoisting of the No8 signal on August 10, says the Observatory, which is responsible for issuing the signal.

HONG Kong needs to overhaul how it deals with severe storms, the head of the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) said yesterday.

The territory hoisted its No. 8 signal - the first there this year - on Aug 10 after Typhoon Pabuk U-turned and passed across the city.

The signal led to the early closure of the stock market, government offices and businesses. Tens of thousands of workers scrambled to get home, resulting in chaos at train stations, bus stops and ferry terminals.

Mr Lam Chiu Ying, director of the HKO, which issues the warnings, said rules for dealing with severe weather were outdated and many workers could have remained in their offices as no law insists business must cease, and most people do not need to catch ferries.

Mr Lam said that responding to a No. 8 by shutting down the city originated at a time when there were no road or rail links between Hong Kong island and Kowloon and the city had many substandard buildings.

Pabuk caused only minor damage to the city and no flights were cancelled. The central business district endured only minor rains and winds.

881

I brought my dad to watch this local movie 881 today. This is a show about Hokkien getai (opera) and the story revolves around two girls who dreams to become getai stars.

I know some of you might be put off by alot of factors in going to see the show
- Hokkien show, obiang
- local production not worth of the $
- getai, so old, unglam
- ...

Forget about these reservations and do yourself a favour to watch it. The movie really brings the essence of getai to the mass, there were alot of old folks in the cinema and when the movie breaks into a Hokkien tune, you can hear some of them humming to it :) Bring your parents if possible, I'm sure they will enjoy it.

Look out for actress Liu Ling Ling, who steals the show with her comical Hokkien dialogue, which she delievers effortlessly with a straight face!

This is the theme song from the movie, take a listen, really nice!

一人一半 (Solo version)



一人一半 (Duet version)

Nice feel-good DVD to recommend

A friend asked me to help order this DVD from the internet and before we passed it to her, wife and I sat down on Friday night to watch it.

The movie is adapted from a book, titled "The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio: How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 Words or Less" by Terry Ryan. It stars one of my favourite actress Julianne Moore as the mother. The movie was produced in 2005 but somehow didnt make it to our shores.

We were not aware of this book and the movie till my friend recommended it. We enjoyed the show very much. The show is about this family of 12 and the ups and downs and how they get by. The father, played by Woody Harrelson, supposedly the breadwinner of the family, did not bring home enough money to feed everyone due to his drinking addiction. Luckily the mother, Everlyn Ryan has a flair with words and poetry and she would join jingles contests and a whole lot of others and win household items for the family. The story is set back in the 50s, so you can imagine how much these prizes were to them.

If you want a feel-good movie, this is it. Julianne Moore did a very good job in portraying the character of the mother, so positive that you just like her. Her smile, her mannerism, her ability to diffuse anger is something that we should all learn.

This movie is adapted from a true story, from the eyes of the daughter's Terry Ryan who wrote the memoir. You get to see the real life kids (old adults now) making an appearance towards the end of the movie. Having watched the film version, I will try to get hold of the book and read to know more about the Ryan family.

Pretty Signs

Things were back to normal the next day, no exceptional crowd at the MTR. There was a long queue though up the escalator and I took the stairs and saw these nice signs, part of a "climb the stairs" campaign:





.

Bless the Typhoon

Typhoon hit signal number 8 on Friday!

An extract from the hotel typhoon alert information phamplet:
Signal number 8:
"
When signal number 8 is hoisted, we strongly recommend that you stay indoors. Offices, shops, banks and schools will close. Public transport services will be suspended any time, although the Harbour Tunnels and MTR wll still provide safe, easy crossing from Kowloon to HK and vice versa. For your own safety, you should stay in the hotel, draw the curtains in your room and stay away from all windows
"

I had lunch with my customer at about 12pm+ that day, we went back to the customer office at about 2pm. As we were preparing to start the training, one of the customer told us that there is a government typhoon alert at 4pm! So exciting right? 1st thing that came across my mind is: can go back or not? :) The customer then checked with their boss and we were told to quickly pack up and go back. Great!

Taxis were not available, we can see alot people on the streets waiting for buses and others were heading towards the nearest MTR. As the customer site is quite far from our hotel, we decided to take MTR back.

What a mad crowd it was at the MTR, I captured some pics to share:















Everyone was packed like sardines and for me to reach near to the door, it took like 45 mins! Can't believe I actually stood there for so long, it was getting very stuffy and you see people perspire and you see sweat beads on everyone's face ...















Finally got into the train:















So glad to exit from the MTR station and make my way back to the hotel.















Somehow at Causeway Bay where I stayed, I don't experience strong winds at all, maybe its blocked by the tall buildings around this area. We were wondering if its a false alarm or expecting the typhoon to hit later in the night.

When I reached the hotel at about 5pm, alot of shops and restaurants have closed, wife decided to ta bao some cup noodles for dinner. The news interviewed some folks and alot were quite happy to be able to leave office early and when asked what they intend to do, some of them said they will go to karaoke lounges with friends or rent DVDs and watched at home.

You must be wondering why I bless the typhoon, for me, I was supposed to be at customer site at 2am that very night for some upgrade work. So it was good news for me when I learnt from customer that the night work has been cancelled and postponed to a week later. By then someone from the local team will take over so I no need to worry about that anymore! Yipee!

At around 7pm+, wifey and I decided to go out and take a look to see if there are any shops that remains opened. It was a ghost town, the MTR were so empty , when we boarded the subway train, we were like the only 2 persons in that cabin! Wife managed to contact her friends (Singaporeans working in HK) and we decided to visit them. Her friends stayed in a flat, looks like condo, and it was on the 50th floor. While making our way to the building lobby, we have to brace the strong winds and hold the umbrella tightly in case we get blown away :) Once up there, we can really feel the strong winds and there were light rains as well. That was probably the strongest winds we felt that day.

We brought the cup noodles there, chit chat and had dinner. Quite a cosy evening spent.