Tuesday, May 13, 2008

母亲节

母亲已经过世有六年了。上个星期五在早报副刊读到这则文章,在这跟大家分享:

龙应台-母亲节

2008-05-09

收到安德烈的电邮,有点意外。这家伙,不是天打雷劈的大事──譬如急需钱,是不会给他母亲发电邮的。不知怎么回事,有这么一大批十几二十岁左右的人 类,在他们广阔的、全球覆盖的交友网络里──这包括电邮、MSNFACEBOOKBeboTwitter、聊天室、手机简讯等等,母亲是被他们 归入spam (垃圾)或资源回收筒那个类别里去的。简直毫无道理,但是你一点办法都没有。高科技使你能够看见他,譬如三更半夜时,如果你也在通宵工作,突然一声,你知道他上网了。也就是说,天涯海角,像一个雷达荧幕,他现身在一个定点上。或者说,夜航海上,茫茫中突然浮现一粒渔火,分明无比。虽然也可 能是万里之遥,但是那个定点让你放心──亲爱的孩子,他在那里。

  可是高科技也给了他一个逃生门──手指按几个键,他可以把你隔离掉,让那个一声,再也不出现,那个小小的点,从你的爱心雷达网上彻底消失。

  朋友说,送你一个电脑相机,你就可以在电脑上看见儿子了。我说,你开玩笑吧?哪一个儿子愿意在自己电脑上装一个监视器,让母亲可以千里追踪啊?这种东西是给情人,不是给母子的。

  我问安德烈,你为什么都不跟我写电邮?

  他说,妈,因为我很忙。

  我说,你很没良心耶。你小时候我花多少时间跟你混啊?

  他说,理智一点。

  我说,为什么不能跟我多点沟通呢?

  他说,因为你每次都写一样的电邮,讲一样的话。

我说,才没有。

  他说,有,你每次都问一样的问题,讲一样的话,重复又重复。

  我说,怎么可能,你乱讲!我这么聪明的人,怎么可能?

  打开安德烈的电邮,他没有一句话,只是传来一个网址,一则影像──“我很无聊网,已经有四千个点击,主题是,与母亲的典型对话。作者用漫画手法,配上语音,速描出一段自己跟妈妈的对话:

  我去探望我妈。一起在厨房里混时间,她说,我烧了鱼。你爱吃鱼吧?

  我说:妈,我不爱吃鱼。

  她说:你不爱吃鱼?

  我说:妈,我不爱吃鱼。

  她说:是鲔鱼呀。

  我说:谢谢啦。我不爱吃鱼。

她说:我加了芹菜。

  我说:我不爱吃鱼。

  她说:可是吃鱼很健康。

  我说:我知道,可是我不爱吃鱼。

  她说:健康的人通常吃很多鱼。

  我说:我知道,可是我不吃鱼。

  她说:长寿的人吃鱼比吃鸡肉还多。

  我说:是的,妈妈,可是我不爱吃鱼。

  她说:我也不是在说,你应该每天吃鱼鱼鱼,因为鱼吃太多了也不好,很多鱼可能含汞。

我说:是的,妈妈,可是我不去烦恼这问题,因为我反正不吃鱼。

她说:很多文明国家的人,都是以鱼为主食的。

  我说:我知道,可是我不吃鱼。

  她说:那你有没有去检查过身体里的含汞量?

  我说:没有,妈妈,因为我不吃鱼。

  她说:可是汞不只是在鱼里头。

  我说:我知道,可是反正我不吃鱼。

  她说:真的不吃鱼?

  我说:真的不吃。

  她说:连鲔鱼也不吃?

  我说:对,鲔鱼也不吃。

她说:那你有没有试过加了芹菜的鲔鱼?

  我说:没有。

  她说:没试过,你怎么知道会不喜欢呢?

  我说:妈,我真的不喜欢吃鱼。

  她说:你就试试看嘛。

  所以……我就吃了,尝了一点点。之后,她说:怎么样,好吃吗?

  我说:不喜欢,妈,我真的不爱吃鱼。

  她说:那下次试试鲑鱼。你现在不多吃也好,我们反正要去餐厅。

  我说:好,可以走了。

  她说:你不多穿点衣服?

我说:外面不冷。

  她说:你加件外套吧。

  我说:外面不冷。

  她说:考虑一下吧。我要加件外套呢。

  我说:你加吧。外面真的不冷。

  她说:我帮你拿一件?

  我说:我刚刚出去过,妈妈,外面真的一点也不冷。

  她说:唉,好吧。等一下就会变冷,你这么坚持,等着瞧吧,待会儿会冻死。

  我们就出发了。到了餐厅,发现客满,要排很长的队。这时,妈妈就说:我们还是去那家海鲜馆子吧。

  原来,这个电邮,是安德烈给我的母亲节礼物呢。

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Sight seeing

Beijing is bustling with activities. You can see posters such as this in the subway and the 5 cute Olympic mascots 福娃 in souvenirs shops.


































With the Summer Olympics just around the corner, there are two more new attractions for people to sight see when in Beijing. One being the Olympic stadium, also known as the bird nest 鸟巢 because of its design and the National Aquatics Center 水一方.










Artiste impression - Day shot















My poorly taken shot of the aquatic center, didnt bring my digital camera lah.












Artiste impression - Night view when it is illuminated.






























The construction of the stadium has been completed but security was tight, there were fences around it so was not able to get up close to it. The surrounding area was abit messy, there are still some pending roads works to be done.













Artiste impression - exterior view















Artiste impression - night view

With the stadium and the aquatic center side by side, it really looks quite nice:



























































This building stands opposite the stadium and the aquatic center, the top looks like a dragon's head, not sure if its some hotel or offices. Might be the Olympic village where all the athletes stay, looks quite posh.


Sunday, May 04, 2008

Off to Beijing

Its exactly 1 month since my last trip. This time, I'm off to Beijing to give training.

Been busy, didnt blog :( excuses excuses :)

Hope I will have some leisure time to go take a look at the "bird nest" Olympic Stadium and post some pics here.

View from my hotel room. The picture is taken from my phone camera, not that sharp:















This weird looking structure is actually the new China Central Television (CCTV) and Headquarters Building & Cultural Centre building.

Once completed, it will look something like this, quite nice and modern. My Beijing colleague was lamenting how ugly it looks and we were wondering how the lift is being built, will it be slanted ?


The entire structure and the facade will be completed before the start of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.











Another similar senget structure in Madrid:














I visited Madrid in 2005 but it was abit far so didnt go and take a look. It is the KIO (Kuwaiti Investment Office) Towers, located at Plaza de Castilla, looks like a modern version of the Twin Pisa Towers.

Saturday, April 05, 2008

Bangkok 5th - 7th Apr

Will be in Bangkok for a short getaway.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Muxtape













Hey I found this cool website which allows u to create and share the tape of the songs that u like.

Check out mine at http://onewheel.muxtape.com/

Go create your own at http://muxtape.com/. Better faster go and "chop" the userid that you want before others grab it.

Do share with me once you have yours ok? :)

Sunday, March 09, 2008

Off to Manila 9th to 15th March

This week I'm in Manila giving customer training. My last visit here was back in 2004, things here didnt seem to change much.

After checking in to the hotel, I walked over to the Glorietta mall for abit of shopping.
The small Thai restaurant that I always dine back then is still there :) . So I ordered the usual Tom Yung Gong with rice. Nice and simple.

I am not that a foodie so didnt try any of their local food. Tomorrow I'm going to try the Italian restaurant that I used to go also :)

Monday, February 25, 2008

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 :)

Saturday, February 23, 2008

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 :)

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

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

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

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 i
n 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.

Monday, February 04, 2008

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.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

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 :)

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

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 :)

Friday, November 09, 2007

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.

Thursday, November 08, 2007

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 :)









Tuesday, October 30, 2007

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.