To the cinema : Transformers : Revenge of the Fallen

After nearly 2.5 hours of blurry transformations of machines, confusing and long fight scenes, and the actors shouting at one another most of the time, I got to say that Transformers 2 is disappointing. Ok, the entertainment level is there, but the storyline is plain old school and expected.

And apparently, seems like everyone, except for Mikaela, in the movie has something to do to try to save the Earth from the aliens, even for Sam's room mate, Leo, who obviously is introduced just to bring in humour to the movie, brought them to the RoboWarrior.

So, what, exactly is Megan Fox's role in this movie? Other than being shown as Sam's girlfriend and a sexy mechanic, and waiting for Sam to say "I love you"? No offense to those oh-i-think-Megan-Fox-is-damn-hot fans out there, but she has absolutely nothing to do in this movie. Ok, maybe to attract more male movie-goers who are not Transformers fans to boost the box office sales, other than that, her role is completely unnecessary compared to Transformers 1. And surprise! There is a Transformers 3, presumably coming out in 2011, and I wonder what will she do in there?

And then there is the contradictory part at the start when the chaos started in Shanghai. I thought the army guy said that the civilians are evacuated, then how come there is the old man still happily eating his dinner when the bad and mean machine tore through the house?

Also, those unnecessary scenes, like the one where Sam's mother innocently took too many drug-laced cookies and became high and ran crazy around his campus; the one where the twin cars fought and Bumblebee accidentally hit the wall when we all know that the key is behind that wall; and the battle scene at the dessert while waiting for Sam and Mikaela to run to save Optimus Prime. It was a longest, noisiest, messiest and most boring scene. And, the part where Optimus destroyed the Sun Harvester and the Fallen, it was so anti-climatic!!!!!!

Sorry, dear... if there really was a Transformer 3 coming out, maybe look for someone else to watch it with you? I can patiently wait for the DVD to be out and save on the movie tickets to buy tidbits to go with the DVD.

Aaron Kwok De Show Reel Live In Concert 2009

Please do not comment on why there is a Superman

underwear stuck upside down onto his chest.

I wonder about that too.

I know, I know. This is a super overdue post. Was actually thinking whether or not to even post about the concert at all, coz I could hear Mama's voice at the back of my mind : "So old already still crazy over Aaron Kwok?" Then I recalled all those uncles and aunties, and one old grandma among the crowd at the concert, I realised that there was a high possibility that 20 years down the road, if the 60 plus year-old Aaron Kwok can still perform, I'll still continue to support his concerts. Haha. And also recalling Spyder's enthusiasm at the concert, and now, as I'm typing this entry, he's watching the DVD of the concert for the 3rd (or 4th?) time since we bought it about 1 and a half weeks ago, I would be letting him down if I didn't record our experience at the concert.

But come to think of it, as with most Aaron Kwok's concerts, you have to be there to feel and experience it. It was not something to be put into words easily. One thing for sure, his dancing and entertaining abilities were still exceptional, though I cannot say the same for his singing. There were some songs whereby I could hear the key has been changed to accomodate him. Maybe age is catching up... can't sing and dance at the same time for too long. However, this time round, he spoke more in Mandarin (though still not good at it) than Cantonese compared to his past concerts, much to the delight of the Singapore audience and Spyder.

Actually, with my lazy personality, if something didn't appear here after I've done it for about 2 weeks or so, then I didn't plan to post it up at all. But why this now? Because the stage he used this time has claimed the Guiness world record, and I can also irritate those anti Aaron Kwok readers. Heh.

Of all his concerts (only one previous was recorded here) I went to, our tickets (S$188) this time brought us closest to the stage.

And yes, for this concert, photography and videography were allowed, as long as professional equipments were not used. The above miserable picture was taken by my acclaimed 5-megapixel camera phone. I gave up after a few tries since I know there will be many people who will be uploading their photos and videos onto the Internet.

Like this very kind soul who has put together the photos of the concert onto Youtube. Don't you just luuuuurve the Internet and Youtube???!!!

Unfriendly forces?

For the past 2 months, we have been contemplating whether to install a CCTV outside our door. It started when we arrived home one evening, to find the leaves of our plants plucked to clean some dog poo and were left lying outside our door.

Then it was followed by the disappearance of our Ikea $6.90 wooden shoe rack. Most likely it was much newer looking than the rest of our worn slippers.

A few weeks later, a pair of less than $10, pasar-malam bought slippers (belonging to Spyder) also mysteriously disappeared. I could practically see steam coming out of his ears. Yes, he was damn freaking frustrated.

Then came the latest...

Somebody apparently, and purposely broke the stems of our plants. When I saw Spyder's face, I seriously thought he was going to steam at his ears and roar the whole block down at the same time. But it was really super duper frustrating that such things are happening. Spyder wondered if it was specifically targetted at us. But I thought it might be a random act since we stayed on the 7th storey, and kids can always run up and down the stairs to make mischief. Oh, and don't even get me started on the kids playing around this area.

Where has the neighbourly love gone??!

Life, it's ever so strange

It's so full of change

Think that you've worked it out then BANG

Right out of the blue

Something happens to you

To throw you off course

and then you

Breakdown

Yeah you breakdown

Well don't you breakdown

Listen to me

Because

It's just a ride, it's just a ride

no need to run, no need to hide

It'll take you round and round

Sometimes you're up

sometimes you're down

It's just a ride, it's just a ride

don't be scared

don't hide your eyes

It may feel so real inside

but don't forget it's just a ride

Truth, we don't wanna hear

It's too much to take

Don't like to feel out of control

So we make our plans

Ten times a day

And when they don't go our way we

Breakdown...

- Just A Ride, Jem

Long, long time ago...

... there was a little girl who is tiny and chubby, cute as a button, and extremely lovable by all...

I'm not sure what triggered me to think back to the childhood (note : I'm still all that, except being 'tiny and chubby'). Don't tell me it's the age thingy, coz I'm still in occassional self-denial about that.


Anyway, this is one of my favourite photo... which at that time, I believe I was still one of the youngest in the family when most of my older cousins had to put up and/or give in to me. And according to my mother, a little tyrannic as well... haha.

So, have you already guessed which is me?? ;p

Come Back To Me - David Cook

*the original music video is blocked for embedding, so have to make do with this*

To the cinema : Angels & Demons

The "Illuminati Diamond"

Finally found the time to watch the movie. I was very excited when I first heard that Angels & Demons is going to be made into a movie. After reading this and The Da Vinci Code, I actually much preferred the former, maybe because the storyline of Da Vinci Code is much more predictable than Angels & Demons.

However, after watching the movie, I can more or less understand the less than average ratings in the reviews for it. According to the husband who had never read the book, he said it was a "good thriller". For me, however, I don't find it as exciting as The Da Vinci Code movie. There seemed to be something missing in the "thriller" department for this movie, and I just can't figure out what it was. Or maybe it was because I already know the ending to it? Or most likely it was because the disadvantage of movie is the limited time they have to bring out the whole story to the audience, and thus, just only skimmed through the main points of the plot, instead of having much more details and interesting explanations in the novel itself. For example, like the thing with the antimatter, if I didn't read the book, I'm sure to get lost in the explanation from the movie, since I'm not a scientist either.

Now I know why people sometimes say not to watch a movie who is produced from a good novel coz they will usually end up to be disappointing.

AAAARRRGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! So what if you are all male, botak, with ang gongs (tattoos) on your arm, and talk louder than the rest of us??!!!! Does it give you a right to cut the queue when we, the poor females have been standing in line for the past 10 minutes??!!! I have the damn right to glare at you... You *beep* *beep* *beeeeeeeeeep*!!!!!!

Huat ah!

The next time you happen to go to Din Tai Fung for a meal, do take a closer look at the pictures in the menu. Those dishes with spring onions as garnish, almost all of them have two green spring onion rings strategically positioned to resemble the number 8. No, they don't look accidental at all. In fact, they looked totally photoshop-ed.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, it was the husband who noticed it. I was only thinking about the food. Ha.

Another year added on

Yes, people... it's that time of the year, and yes, I'm officially in my 30s. No, sir... not going to 30, or 30 only... it's 30s from now on.

And some things just happened everyday, insignificantly... some small little things, that you didn't realised until you looked back, that somehow, are actually reminders that you are getting older...

- when filling online forms for year of birth, you have to start scrolling down to find the year you are born in

- when forms categorised the age group... one moment you are in the group age 26-30, the next moment, you are ticking the group age 31-35

- when much more time is spent on debating whether a certain kind of food/tidbit/drink/dessert is going to give you some kind of age-related disease rather than gobbling it down right away

- when you start to look out for any signs of grey hair while combing in front of the mirror

- when you find yourself spending more time, at a much closer distance from the mirror to check for wrinkles, instead of worrying about pimple outbreak

- when the thought of going to Orchard Road during the weekend actually gives you a headache rather than a sense of excitement and anticipation

- when staying out late every weekend doesn't seem so appealing anymore (you think that going home earlier actually means more time to rest)

- when you have to fight hard to keep yourself awake when the clock reads 2:00 a.m.

- when your iPod keeps playing the same songs for the past year, and you have to rely on your young, little sister to keep you updated on new songs

- when mothers with young kids start to give a look that seems to say "should i ask my ah girl to call her jie jie or auntie?", or worse, the kid straight-away calls you auntie without any prompting from the parent

But then again, like I was talking to Chelly that day, it wasn't so bad being 31. As people will say, age is just a number, what matters is how you look at life and live it. As the Chinese says, 人老心不老 (young at heart). Or maybe I can change to 人老"歆"不老 in another couple of years time. Haha.