Movies to watch in the Cinema for 2013

Right now, Iron Man 3 is out. Raudha has been dropping a few hints insisting we watch it. I’m not convinced if it’s Iron Man or Robert Downey Jr she wants to watch, but I’ll try to bring her anyway.

I've missed out on a lot of cinema movies for quite a while now so I’m listing, right now, right here, the top 5 movies that I resolve to watch for 2013. Yes, I know I'm late, but guess what, I still haven't watched anything in the cinema this year, with more than a third of the year gone. 

Star Trek: Into Darkness

First on the list, this one’s coming in May, I think everyone's looking forward to this one. I hope I’ll be able to score a preview screening. Trailer looks nifty, but admittedly all trailers look impressive.

I like this post, it's exciting!

JJ Abrams did an amazing job with the first movie, if he can match that I’d be very much impressed. With a great cast in place, it’s all down to the vision and execution. Hopefully all 7 of the crew will get to shine in their own separate style.

World’s End

This is the third in the Cornetto trilogy (see here for a wiki that sheds some light). Hot Fuzz did not achieve the same heights as Shaun of The Dead, but that was always a big ask. For those not in the know, all three movies pair the dynamic comedy duo from Britain, Simon Pegg (who incidentally is also in Star Trek) and Nick Frost. Shaun of The Dead was the first rom-zom-com before Warm Bodies was even written, and has since developed a cult following. I’ve actually written about this movie before, almost ten years ago (see here). Loved it loved it loved it! Hope this one turns out to be just as entertaining.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

 The whole point of this article. I admit it, at the time of this writing, I have yet to watch The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (apologies Nurul!). But I promise I will before Desolation of Smaug comes out. I’m one of those fanboys who were pretty annoyed at The Hobbit becoming three movies, but I will watch it regardless.

What, you haven't watched the first one yet? Silly Gollum!

 

Jack Ryan

 I’ve always been a fan of the Jack Ryan novels. I tapered off after Executive Orders though. The Bear and The Dragon just didn’t click with me and didn’t continue to read any. Most of the newer characters created by Clancy didn’t have the same charm and life of the older characters.

As for the movies, my favourite remains The Hunt for Red October, but I preferred Harrison Ford’s take on the character. Alec Baldwin was okay, Ben Affleck was not. And the problem with the Jack Ryan novels in general is that there’s so many storylines going on at the same time, even if they are connected in some way. As such, the movie adaption more often than not ends up having to trim the story to make it work. I felt most of the movies (except The Hunt for Red October) chopped off some of the best bits.

Man, my ride in Star Trek was way cooler!

I’m not sure which novel it’ll be based on, since Chris Pine is Jack Ryan, it could be Red Rabbit (with a younger Jack Ryan). We’ll see… Incidentally, Keira Knightley is starring as Cathy Ryan. Va Va Voom!

Wrap-up

 So there you have it. When it comes to the cinema, as you can see I prefer movies that can take advantage of a cinema setting. Contemporary human dramas or even comedies therefore rarely make the list, even though they may become my favourite movie. I like to watch those in the comfort of home. The Wolverine deserves a mention, but it’s not really a priority for me. I hope I haven’t missed anything out.

Now that my list has been made official, I damn well better make sure I watch ‘em!

Weekend bites 27th-28th April

Hello Kitty madness returns

Ok, this wasn't strictly speaking the weekend, but this was the scene on Friday lunchtime at McDonald's.

They recently launched another set of Hello Kitty, it's not one of those special sets, like those cultural outfits, the wedding outfits, the ones that actually sparked a riot in Singapore about a dozen years ago. This time the dolls dressed in McDonald's characters, which isn't that special I would think.

But that didn't prevent the hordes from materialising anyway. I was really hungry by the time I got my food.

And I ended up helping to buy one for my boss. Yes you read it right ha ha...

Sorry, you'll need to look elsewhere for a picture of the actual doll. Try this link.

My 35th Birthday

I celebrated my birthday on Saturday 27th April. My folks were actually having a makan-makan (ie food fest) in Bangi and invited some of my relatives. The main reason was really to celebrate Budi, my cousin, getting her PhD. (I had to look up how to capitalise PhD btw. I don't have one clearly!)

Then at one point my mom went to wake up Zharif for the surprise birthday cake. I believe my mom made the mistake of asking Kak Intan to call Raudha because Zharif had woken up. Kak Intan made the call, but I'm the one who jumped up faster and went. Only to discover the cake...



Sheesh, I look so out of shape. I shouldn't have eaten my own cake...

Thanks to all those who wished me well on Facebook and Whatsapp. You guys are great! And thanks to Liverpool for a nice 6-0 win over Newcastle :)

Sunday Exercise

Zharif didn't sleep at all during the day on Sunday, even after class. I ended up bringing him and Raudha along to TTDI park. He got to use his still new bike outdoors while I got to do my weekly jog. Well, theoretically for me anyway.

I didn't warm up properly so my ankle started aching. I ended up doing only two rounds of the park which sucks. But it was nice to bring my family around, and Raudha commented that it's actually quite a nice park. I totally agree.

We met my colleague Sherry just as I was leaving. I had this selfish thought hoping she would end up running even less than me. Yes I can be a prick sometimes lol.

Still working on his cycling motion, not quite there yet.

Game of Thrones

I caught up to episode four of season 3. Thanks to a Mr. Ti for the episodes.

I found this funny report about Game of Thrones being the most illegally downloaded series of 2012, and S3 Episode 1 breaking multiple records:

http://www.wired.com/underwire/2013/04/game-of-thrones-season-3-piracy/

Guilty as charged. I didn't download season 3 myself, but I probably would have. I gave up watching the butchered version on Astro two seasons ago.

On a separate note, Bran looks so grown up! Won't be long before he'll finally be allowed to watch in full the  series he's starring in :p

Ye Olde Smokehouse review up on Tripadvisor

You can read it here:

http://bit.ly/ZoN88m

Incidentally, I also have a gripe with TripAdvisor. If my review is pending a review by admin, why send out a Facebook post saying I've just written a review and not wait until it's been cleared? Raudha tried clicking on the link provided but couldn't find my post and that's how I found out it was under review. Now that it's cleared, the Facebook post is old news on my wall. Which sucks.

This sign is in the Smokehouse. For the record (apologies for the poor photography), line four says "USE MARKSMANSHIP IN TOILET".

So there.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Preamble:

I read Mark Haddon's second book A Spot of Bother (belonging to Raudha) about 3 years ago and found it hilariously entertaining.  The Curious Incident (also belonging to Raudha) was dug up recently while cleaning up the house so I finally got around to reading Haddon's first book.

Basic Plot:

The story follows Christopher, a fifteen-year old kid with an autistic condition, and his ensuing adventure/investigation after discovering his neighbour's dog dead. The book is actually written by Christopher as he tells his story. 

Style Review:

As the book is written by a boy, it uses a simple yet elegant style of writing, a story interlaced with interesting facts that he finds interesting. Every now and then he refers to incidents from memory, and I especially like the way the writing illustrates when things turn out to not be what they originally seemed to Christopher.

Story Review:

It's a great book overall, but I have to admit I didn't quite enjoy the ending. After he makes a trip to London, the final part of the story feels incredibly rushed. The wrap-up just wasn't that convincing, given Christopher's general attitude established during the story. But the story is realistic most of the time. And the viewpoint makes it a fascinating read.

Between his two books I can safely say I enjoyed A Spot of Bother a lot more, nonetheless it's still a good read.

Weekend Bites

Back to the real world after the highlands escapade!

Why you shouldn't name your child after a footballer

Sunday night: around 11pm , Raudha asks me what do I want to name my second kid: I say Ahmad Suarez. Naturally my wife gives me the eye rolling answer. I'm like, is that yes or no?

About 1 hour later, during the Liverpool match, the supposedly adult Suarez appears to bite Ivanovic during the football match !

So I guess that's a no.

Political thoughts

Candidates were named on Saturday morning for this year's elections. I won't go deep, there are plenty of other blogs and sites to do that, but one of the most glaring incidents for me was the deputy chairman of Umno Wanita, Kamilia Ibrahim, not being given a parliamentary seat, but only a state seat. This led to her resigning and contesting as an independent

Questions were naturally raised on the relevance of the wing, and the future of women in the current ruling party  particularly since the Chairman herself has declined to contest.

I prefer to look at it in this point of view: Maybe BN are looking to change the wing's leadership. Remember during the Cow scandal (which isn't finished, for the record), Kamilia DID voice her opinion that it might be best for Shahrizat to step down. Rafidah probably loved her to bits for that, but the rest of BN?

Look at it this way, Azalina Othman is contesting a parlimentary seat, isn't she?

On a separate note, if Pas had ended up nominating Muhammad Taib for a seat, I might just have given up on politics altogether!

Flashing neon lights and weddings

I attended my cousin in law's wedding event on the guy's side on Sunday. Now typically the guy's side tends to be less formal in Malay weddings, with all the formality taken care of on the girl's side.

However, this event will stick out in my memory for being the first wedding I've attended to have flashing neon lights for the buffet and desert section ! I don't have the actual photo, but it looked something like this:

I do love these innovations in Malay weddings, it just gets so dreary sometimes. Hoping for more fun weddings to attend! 

Second night at Cameron

Or rather, the first day...

Not gonna walk through the whole day but I can say the big highlight of the day was our visit to the Boh tea plantation at Sg Palas. We had to go up a considerable amount of uneven steps to get to the centre but once again I was quite impressed by my kid's strength in going up the steps. I'm sure some of you with kids will say this is nothing new, but hey, it's still surprising for me !

At the centre we did what every tourist would do, visit the tea factory, drink tea and snack on the deck facing the tea plantations and take a lot of pictures!

(Having problems uploading pics now, will update later)

We did visit the pasar malam (night market) at Brinchang but we only got slippers for Zharif ha ha....

Tonight we are holed up at Ye Old Smokehouse. I'll be writing a review at TripAdvisor later in the week, but  for now I can say it's not too bad but the main problem i have with the atmosphere is the fugly building being constructed right next door!

Escapade!

This post is being composed at 0220 in the morning and I'm up because my kid is still awake. We let him sleep a lot in the car on the way here. Where's here? Hang on.

This is also my first post on my Samsung S3. I keep going back to correct misspelt words so it's taking a while.

So where IS this? Well, it's outside the Equatorial hotel at Cameron Highlands. The decision to go here was made at about 1pm earlier today, oh wait, I mean yesterday !

We planned to take a holiday months ago but just couldn't finalise a destination lol... we had Fraser Hill, Port Dickson, Pangkor, Langkawi and Cameron but we also had doing Umrah in Mecca and London ! We had multiple challenges such as when exactly Raudha was able to take leave, how long she could be away from work,  as well as worries about the weather (it was haywire last week!).

Raudha was on leave since Tuesday, me Wednesday yet Thursday morning we were still in KJ. I was even prepared to face the fact that come Sunday,  we would still have not gone anywhere !

 Fortunately we decided yesterday afternoon, made our bookings and here we are. Although, unfortunately,  our late decision meant we were late getting here, the roads were dark, we ended up arriving past 9pm and not able to see much. We even had dinner in the hotel, not something we would normally do...

Anyway, we are here, safe and sound, and as i write, my kid is now asleep. i guess that's my cue to turn in as well. Good night, or good morning rather. Expecting plenty of writing material tomorrow!

Short post on the Boston Marathon incident..

I woke up this morning to some horrible news on my twitter feed. The Boston Marathon has been the scene of multiple bombings. As of the last update I read on CNN, there are now 3 dead, and 141 injured, of which 17 are in critical condition. I can't begin to imagine the horror.

I live in Malaysia, which is half a world away from Boston, USA. However, I know quite a few marathon runners, like my brother and some friends from boot camp workouts. I hope no one I know was affected by the incident, and my thoughts and prayers go out to those who were.

The thing is, I'm attending the Standard Chartered Marathon in June, although strictly speaking I'm not running the full marathon, but the 10km run portion. Ever since I registered a few months back, it's been in the back of my head. It affects my decision-making when deciding whether to take a bus or walk. Whether I take the escalator or the stairs. Whether I eat cereal or fried noodles for breakfast. Whether I should wake up early to exercise on Saturday mornings. And of course the need to ensure that the date remains free, so no planning holidays around that time.

But never once have I thought about the potential of the marathon becoming the scene of a bombing. Never once have I thought it could be the target of a terrorist attack. And now, it will undoubtedly manifest itself at the back of my mind. Whether or not it will affect my run in June, I cannot say. I still plan to run, and I pray I am strong enough.

I hate the people who have caused this. A marathon is supposed to be an example of the triumph of human spirit. It still is, but now it is associated with an act of madness. I can only hope and pray that this incident does not happen again.

Again, my thoughts and prayers to all those affected by this terrible, terrible incident.

Post-script: I just read about the Iraq bombings as well. It's a sad day for humanity...

Post-script to yesterday's post

And just to further illustrate how much of a non-entity I can be when my wife's around, last night, with my wife back from work, Zharif refused to allow me into my bedroom. Oh, and not just the bedroom, I couldn't access the entire floor.

I ended up sleeping on a couch. DOWNSTAIRS.

The travesty of it all ha ha...

Yesterday I managed to get some quality time with Zharif. Cue celebrations!

Let's face it, most of the time when his Mummy's around, I'm pretty much a non-entity.  I can't lie down next to him, I can't give him food, I can't make his milk, I can't bathe him. He'll insist on Mummy doing it, saying stuff like "Daddy taknak. Daddy taknak go down. Daddy tak boleh sit here!" (No to Daddy, Daddy don't come down, daddy don't sit here!). The only time I get mostly is bergasak, bergumpal physical wrestling time.

So yesterday was the first time in a while that Mummy was on call on a Sunday. As much as I felt bad for my wife, I haveta say I had a great time with Zharif. The first indication is while I was sending my wife to work, my mom-in-law wanted to give him a shower, and he told them "tak nak, nak tunggu daddy!" (no, wanna wait for daddy!)

When I came back,  he was busy with his new bike(thanks to his grandparents!) in his pajamas.

We ended up bringing Subway to my wife so I brought him along. Afterwards, gave him a shower, I took him to his playschool (he was very excited to go, he kept saying "Nak pergi Curve, "Nak go Tumbletots!") He enjoyed the activities (although again he refused to participate in the sing-alongs), made a new friend named Eva.

We had Sushi King afterwards as a bit of a reward for him being cheerful and mostly cooperative, and for the first time he had some of the sushi rice. Usually he would have his Udon Mee followed by Yakult + Ice cream. But this time, he tried it and liked it, even when I tinged it with some soy sauce and a wee bit of wasabi. Looks like I can experiment more next time :p

Anticipating wasabi?

We played a bit in the arcade before we went back around 3. He wanted to stay on but it was clear he was already quite tired, and he ended up falling asleep in the car so we went home. I put him on his mattress but he kept adjusting himself to the floor.

Usually I'd go for a jog around 5pm at TTDI but I couldn't as there was no one else around to take of the dude. I actually thought of bringing him along to the park with his bike later but he woke up after 6pm which was a bit too late. When he woke, my mum-in-law took him to Giant followed with a visit to rumah Mak Aza which is just in Kelana Jaya as well.

I ended up walking there around 7pm to do some car management and I got to drive back Mak Kati's nice Merc with Zharif in the passenger seat.

Gave him a shower in the evening, did some jigsaw puzzles, introduced him to cricket (!) and he ended the day watching some barney ABC videos before falling asleep at a bit after 1. Yes, we're still working on normalising his sleep patterns :p I didn't spend the entire evening with him, he allocated his precious time with everyone around in the house. :D

Yes, I know, he keeps falling asleep on the floor, that's a no-no with Mummy around.... :p Of course, I moved him to the bed!

  

All in all, it was pretty mundane when you look back at it, but for me, the time spent was priceless.              

Interests can come and go...

It's been more than 12 years since I left Australia. I'm sure that a lot of stuff that I got interested in while I was there, I no longer have an interest in. One example would be Vegemite. While I was there I was almost certain that it would be a part of my breakfast regularly for the rest of my life. Well, that's no longer the case. Not for lack of availability, if I wanted to, I'm sure I can find it in places like Jaya Grocers. But I don't remember the last time I had a yearning for it, so I can safely consign it to be an interest that no longer is.

But I'll tell you one thing I picked up while I was there that I still indulge in:

Cricket.

As I write this, I'm watching live streaming of the Indian Premier League (IPL), watching the team I decided to support a few years back: King's XI Punjab.

(And just watched one of my team's wickets fall :( )

I have to admit I'm a bit surprised that I still follow quite a bit of cricket, not just on-field but off-field. For 8 years I followed it on my own, and it was only in 2008 that I found two more people in Malaysia who shared the same interest, my old boss, and a colleague of mine. I thought that my interest in football would eventually stifle any time devoted to cricket, but nope, that hasn't happened.

Here's one of my favourite T20 format cricketers, Azhar Mahmood.

My old boss has left the company, so I'm down to one fellow fan again.

Maybe I should try seeking out other fans, form a club of some sort maybe?

It would be good if cricket became big in Malaysia, but nope, that ain't happening anytime soon.

For now, come on King's XI Punjab!!!

Fantasy Football Early Thoughts Gameweek 33

Teams with double gamers are: Man Utd, Fulham, Arsenal, West Ham, Everton.

YFF:

My team as it stands:

Fabianski

Koscielny Mbiwa Pogatetz

Gerrard Coutinho Rosicky Townsend

Suarez Gervinho Aguero

I am torn with the decision of whether or not to keep my Liverpool trio? Why, when other teams have two matches? They play Reading, the matchup doesn’t get any better than that. I was expecting to barndoor Rooney this morning, but Man U were poor and even their point generation was lacking. Barndoored Aguero instead but I don’t see him staying. Should leave for either Rooney, Giroud, Carroll, Ruiz, or Berbatov.

7 DGers for now (the 4 SGers being Mbiwa, Gerrard, Coutinho, Suarez). Townsend will leave for Diame. Maybe. No issue with my GK, everyone else is just too pricey.

If I decide to dump Suarez, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Rooney AND RVP in my lineup come the weekend.

Draft team:

Fabianski

Koscielny Mbiwa Pogatetz

Gerrard Coutinho Rosicky Diame.

Suarez Gervinho Rooney

Two units left over, Rooney’s a huge gamble but it’s against two physical sides in Stoke and West Ham. He’s penalty taker over RVP if I’m not wrong.

FAPL: 

Saving the transfer last week turned out well! Scored better than my competition and now have 2 transfers to play with in this double week.

I don’t see any CS for the taking so switching keepers from Jussi (who currently has the BEST point to price ratio) is out. I'm looking at removing Stoke’s Cameron and Newcastle’s Cisse. Aside from both having one less match to go in total, here’s a few more reasons:

Stoke are hopeless right now and their days of being a fortress at home seem long gone. With them being on a downward spiral, there’s a good chance Pulis might try to change things around, even if they do face Arsenal this week, who tend to have trouble dealing with their physicality.

Despite scoring the goal against Fulham, Cisse was guilty of way too many missed chances. Newcastle are one step closer to safety there’s a chance of them tapering off. In any case I have Cabaye, who is currently a better FAPL player than YFF.

So, who to pick? Everton are out (personal principle). Not going Man U either, the only way for me to afford Rooney/RVP is to sell Suarez, and that’s a no given Suarez faces Reading. The rotation risk is just not worth it, and having Kagawa is more than enough to suffer any grief. Man U’s matches are both away anyway.

The players I’m looking at are Koscielny, a Fulham defender, Giroud, Ruiz, Carroll, Berbatov. I can only afford one more Arsenal player. If I ended up removing a midfield player it would be for Nolan, but it would be for Cabaye (not keen). Berbatov is the obvious striker pick, but Ruiz could be a good differential. Carroll is playing for a contract and is motivated. Giroud is in the better team, but his form has been poor.

Defender-wise, Koscielny seems to be the only real option, which renders the Giroud move undoable. No idea with West Ham’s injury-ravaged back line, Pogatetz could be decent if the people he’s replacing are definitely out, but I’m more tempted to go for a Fulham defender, which one though?

Gosh that’s a lot!

How I ended up exercising on Saturday morning!

I woke up quite early which was to be expected given that I had fallen asleep early last night without even changing into my sleep clothes... I had actually planned since last night to head over to the KJ Park this morning for a bit of a workout.

Back story: Last night we were checking out the Mother Child Expo at MidValley but we didn't really buy much (although we did cave in one of Zharif's requests :p. For dinner, we ended up at Delicious. We hadn't been there in ages and they had made some changes apparently, new deco, new menu... Anyway, while sitting there we realised we weren't really THAT hungry so we ordered an Aglio Olio and a 'supposed' appetiser Chill Com Beef Fries.

Ok, you know how we always get annoyed when the picture on the menus always tend to end up much bigger than the actual dish? This is one of those few times where the reverse was true! That appetiser turned out to be a monstrous concoction that made us tired just looking at it! Took us quite a while, but in the end we ended up eating most of it. Taste was okay la... nothing that special. Sorry no pic :p

Anyway, I made up my mind right then and there that I'll need to work some of it off and that meant an early morning workout, which would be after sending my wife to work. It actually rained while I was driving but fortunately by the time I arrived at the park it had stopped.

I ended up doing two rounds, and unlike my rounds at TTDI, I sped it up a bit. All in all, I thought it was quite ok, and I sprinted a bit in my last 100 metres or so. I think it's about time I increased my pace a bit but I didn't want to overexert myself given that I'm planning to run my normal routine at TTDI Sunday evening. Once again I didn't switch on Runkeeper, this time because my phone was about to die. But all in all, it was a good workout! Just need to be consistent!