Bush is definitely the greatest joker of all time.

Thanks Carol for the alert.

It's worrying.

I'm eight years old this year, but I'm not getting the same rewards for being older.


Stonehenge, England - January 2005


The Gardens, Malaysia - January 2009

In four years, it's apparent that I've lost weight - I'm shrinking!

Life hasn't been fair. What's more, I'm just a bear

I don't know, but this is such a coincidence.

Trevor took a photo with his grandfather, his grandfather put his hand on Trevor's shoulder.

I took a photo with Emoody, Emoody put his hand on my shoulder.

Four of us share the similar face expression.

Perhaps, this is why we are called TreVesco - i.e. TREVor + francESCO

Verdict: A good take on life, with an unusual (or, impossible?) angle, blended with good thoughts

This movie tells a story of a man called Benjamin Button, who started his life with an old man outlook, and "grew" backwards to become a baby in the end.

Sounds ridiculous but what's important is its plot.

The starting of the movie had already touched me - when the movie talks about Benjamin, being abandoned because he "looked old" - which coincidentally has the similar case with what I had seen lately in real life.

Then, in several parts of the film, it talked about death. And before those people died, they would tell Benjamin on how he should take on his life - which is like the summary + reflection of their life.

The good thing about this film is that it combined pieces of stories that runs almost 3 hours, which isn't boring.

On the illogical side, how would Benjamin find the time to write the diary, especially when he had been busy having fun with Daisy? But since this is a fictional story, it is totally forgivable :P

This movie reminds me of a film Big Fish, which will also leave you having good thought about life.

Just a thought, would people appreciate life more, if they grow backwards?

Rating: 8.5/10

Looks like British are the big winners here:

With Slumdog Millionaire sweeping total of 8 awards, and with Kate Winslet being the best actress.

Btw, couldn't agree more with 鄭丁賢's article， that Oscar's Best Film is like a benchmark on the world's mainstream value on the current society.

This time, that means the world cares very much on China & India's development - especially the human rights & the difference between the poor & rich

Gardens with the Chinese New Year decorative in the background.

It's been a while since I last visited shopping complex.

On 1/2/2009, I visited Gardens in Kuala Lumpur.

It's a nice but quiet shopping mall.

In order to let me see the surroundings of the shopping mall, Colleen was kind enough to make use of my neck to get it stuck at the edge of her bag.


That was lovely because of my body size, it's impossible to have a good view without doing this!




Colleen acting like a model, and I acted like an innocent bear

Thanks Colleen, it has been a great day out.

I guess it's hard when you admire someone, secretly.

With all the guessing games - especially when you don't know what the other thinks about you - it's kinda suck.

Of course, there are other factors too, such as phobia and my ability to offer.

Else, I guess I'm just a listener and nothing much that I can offer?

Or maybe, it's just me, being a Virgo, thinking all sorts of nonsense.

That, really sucks.

Our family visited him today.

He mentioned that he's a person who loves to talk.

So my parents acted as listeners.

I did persuade him to settle the bankruptcy case, so that he could go back to China to visit his relatives, which some of them, he didn't see for more than half a century.

I told him to, to start with a smaller step, let's organise a trip that will gather his sons and daughters - for a family trip that didn't happen for almost two decades.

So, a tentative conclusion is that:

1) He'll consider about solving the bankruptcy case - which means we'll have to busy find a lawyer service that could do just this
2) He's keen about going for the trip - at least, he mentioned Langkawi

We'll see how. I guess him, being a Pisces (if i'm not wrong, cos the birth date during those days are not reliable), a mutable sign, is highly changeable.

But well, at least we tried.

I was taking Monorail to go home last Friday.

There were two Singaporeans standing in front of me, chatting.

Two of them were whining about their MRT was not well-planned, with some of the area not well-reached, and having too much lines (circle lines, northern line etc) in the city centre.

I don't know what would they think about Malaysia's public transport system. (as they were taking Monorail)

But one thing for sure, they were over-whining, especially in this country.

Verdict: A movie that did its homework - with good quality production and interesting plot

It's hard to make a movie that talks about conspiracy.

Anything that is too fake will ruin the whole movie and became the laughing stock.

Luckily, Valkyrie, based on the true story (of course, only minor modification done in order to suit the Hollywood theme) is not bad.

In terms of acting, Tom Cruise et al did their homework.

In terms of storyline, it's well arranged and it isn't boring even though it has a lot of talking.

I don't have to tell you that this secret operation fails (and I just did) but still, the movie is worth a watch.

Rating: 7/10

taken at Genting, 31/1/2009, with me asking them to "smile"

I know them since 26 years ago.

I don't know but, our family generally didn't get happier since we moved to the new house.

Maybe the smaller room, the closer we get.

I just hope that we will get happier, in times.

Yes, the couple are my parents.

I'm wondering what tactic is McDonald's doing - their lunch set is as cheap as those lunch + drink that you get from hawker stalls

Yah, this is the second day I have proper meal.

Can't wait for the suture to be taken out.

Oh, not to forget, I'm gonna climb mount KK, starting 7/3/09...

Verdict: Unrealistic storyline that wrongly combines martial arts and cooking.

The movies tells two men who love cooking and eventually became the famous chefs.

This movie was on wrong formula, it tries to be funny at one time, but fails to be serious on the proper time.

There's one scene where the sashimi was made from the fish, while letting the fish still swimming (exposing its bone) alive in the aquarium -_-

There were times when people were laughing because the scenes were too unrealistic.

Jokes part, some were ok and they remind me of Chu Yin Ping's style

As a conclusion, the movie fails to explain how and why the necessity of both kung fu and cooking skill in a chef.

Rating: 3.5/10

Since my late granny's departure last year January (to be exact, it's end of Dec 07) my grandfather has been alone.

They had been together for a long time, and their relationship had been good.

Even there's one time, when my mum's relative organised a trip to Cameron, he chose not to follow because my late granny didn't wanna follow.

Two days ago, he called up my mother, told her that he felt very bored at home.

He mentioned that nobody wanted to talk to him, he had nobody to talk to, and he feels like he's dying. (he is staying with my uncle's family)

He doesn't have any hobby as well.

Story from my uncle's side - my grandpa had been fussy over a lot of things - fussy over the small little things not done, record the phone call usage, record the gas usage etc.

That could be the reason why the people around him started not to like him.

What's more, my grandpa is a person who takes monetary issue seriously - every dollar and cents could be a big issue in his eyes - which probably explains why he is recording down the utility usage.

There's no immediate solution to this situation, as he's also a very stubborn person.

What's more, he is a person listed in bankruptcy (for being a guarantor to his friend who fled overseas), he can't even go back to China to visit his relatives.

My father said that this is "the dilemma/sad story of an old man"

Thought for us? Develop a better hobby to avoid such a situation in the future? Don't stick too close with your partner?

Or, any lawyer that you can introduce to help him to get out of the bankruptcy list?

I had better lunch since yesterday.

I had KFC's mashed potato as lunch, and today, I had noodle as lunch.

Can't wait for the suture to be taken out this Saturday.

My first string of my guitar is broken since 3 weeks ago.

Since then, there's no music playing, music composition etc.

Surprisingly, I don't think I have $$$ to buy a new one (!!!)

Don't ask me why :-)

It's been a while since I last blogged about him. He is 8 months old now.

Up until lately, I discovered the new "function" of Emoody, that is to use his big body as my skateboard/surfboard, which I've tried it several times with fun.



But I don't harass him too much, he is just 8 months old, after all.

Elizabeth Wong had resigned from her role of Bukit Lanjan assemblyman.

Of all the columnists (with majority Chinese media) opinions I had read, they were all out for her.

Why did this happen?

It's very easy to link with the political situation lately - with so many assemblyman resigned or "turned their support" to the other party.

Yes. Elizabeth should stay, but I understand that, as a human, it could be hard to handle the pressure.

What's more - it's her human rights and the incident happened in her private property, which is not against any law.

And to those politicians who called for her resignation, they should keep their mouth shut.

If they insist that Elizabeth should resign, they should have done the same for Chua Soi Lek, who was involved in sex scandal before.

Else, it's just plain Chauvinism.

I am very disgusted by the act of the guy, who took + spread the photo of her with agenda.

Last but not least, all these incidents reminds me of the scene happened in the movie, V for Vendetta, I wish that all the opposition assemblymen could stay strong and alert from any conspiracy that may come.

Photo taken: 15/2/2009

Three days down the road, my swollen face is better than on Sunday's.

In the past few days my meals are as follows:

Breakfast: Mushroom Soup/Porridge
Lunch: Soya milk
Dinner: Mushroom soup/Porridge/Any other soup

Good news is, I guess I'll lose some weight, just in time for the KK Trip.

Occasionally I could see Carl's Junior burger large set flying past in my head.

The suture in my mouth is making it feeling uneasy - it'll only be taken out this coming Saturday.

And now, suddenly, I miss the ABC soup I cooked two weeks ago.

This evening in the Monorail train, I saw a person who is speech-impaired, "talking" on the 3G phone with her friend, in sign language.

I felt heartwarming when I saw this scene.

Technology has really brought convenience to human.

Now, the speech-impaired people can "talk" on the phone - they don't need to rely solely on SMS anymore.

That, is the technology that we really need.

Image & Full Story via The Sun

So, this is the latest story that looks funny but sad in a way, to the world.

Funny because, the British kid looks totally innocent to be a father - I don't think he knows the what it takes to become a father.

Sad because, because he doesn't know how to be a father, it would ruin the future of the baby - she could end up living in the orphanage.

The even saddest part is that, the mother of the baby, aged 15, was said to have sex with as many as 8 different teenage boys at the time the baby was conceived.

Now, DNA test is needed to prove who's the real father.


Image & Full Story via The Sun

With the couple playing PS3 with the baby (pictured above), how optimistic can you be, over the baby and even the parents?

Bottom line: Use condom or any other proven contraceptive measure. It's fun to have sex but not fun to have an accident baby.

Music Format: Single
Music Type: J-Pop Sentimental
Release Date: 28/1/2009
Tracklisting:

1. どこ (Doko)
2. Phone
3. どこ（Instrumental）
4. Phone（Instrumental）

It's been a while since I last listened to her music.

This CD single is not bad, with Doko (literally means "Where") being a sentimental music that sounds like Japanese drama's main theme.

It's soothing to listen to this kind of music

"Phone" is a typical Kaela-music, which sounds a bit fun and game-like music.

However, I still like the innocent Kaela better, when she started her singing career in 2004/2005.

Doko MV:


Rating: 7/10

Managed to meet many of them, whom I haven't met for years.

Many can't recognise me cos I've gained a lot of weight since the last meet up.

Nice to have a chat with them.

And good luck to Jane (the one in green shirt), who'll migrate to Brisbane, Australia.

Now, I've gotta continue my weight loss plan. :-)

My father started a blog last week, http://3663t.blogspot.com/

That is with the help of his colleague, with him giving the idea behind.

The blog post is also about his hobby - i.e. 4D lottery analysis + story

Hope you'll enjoy and good luck!

Found and copied from somewhere...and now enhanced with reference from Wikipedia

The text in bold are the updated ones.

Cardinal Signs:

WARNING: Potential disturbing image below



So I finally got one of my wisdom teeth extracted.

How I felt? PAIN. (of course)

There's not much particular feeling during the tooth extraction (started at 4PM) - due to the anesthetic applied.

However, starting at 9PM - the pain finally came - it's really bad.

The operation took about an hour, during that time, I did pray in my heart for the tooth to be extracted ASAP, because the dentist did had a hard time to extract it due to the size.



Gum was cut open cos it's hidden inside, with teeth that was broken into piece, in order to be taken out - due to its large size

And for several time I did ask myself "is this necessary?"

LOL, typical whining during the hard time.

However, RM600 spent, and when the nurse asked me "when do you wanna do for the next tooth?"

I tried hard to smile and said "let's see how it goes"

I hope this extraction will solve some health issue lately. Really. I'm really crossing my finger hard on that

Suddenly my mind had this weird idea -

The most cost-efficient (long term) and also romantic way to celebrate Valentine's Day for guys:

Bring your gf to marriage registrar, and tell her:

"Let's get married NOW(so that I don't need to celebrate Valentine's with you for the rest of my life)"

Earlier on, I met up with Steven and Meipo twice.

They were my (far) neighbour, back in UK.

They got married more than a year ago, and now they've got a daughter.

At Queensbay Mall, Penang

Meipo, 雯歆，Steven and me


Meipo, 雯歆 and Steven

At Yokotaya Restaurant, Kepong

They said the baby is very active and a bit naughty. Then I thought - probably because she's a Sagittarius? :-)


The gentle side of Steven...


While I was looking at the photos of the baby, I kept mumbling "baby"


End up, I called up one of my friend and greeted her "hey, my ex-baby"

She said she was very disgusted.

Some will say good morning to you
Some will be singing
Some are chatting with friends
Some are enjoying the negative-ion at the waterfall
Some are holding hands (pak toh)
Some are breathing hard cos the road is steep

Sometimes you'll see people doing qigong at road side
Sometimes you'll see a person or two plucking the plants/herbs

But all are enjoying the oxygen provided by mother nature. Nice

Last Tuesday I drove my grandfather and my uncle to Ipoh to visit my aunt. She's the youngest sister of my late grandmother.

She is suffering mental illness since young age and she's currently staying in old folk's home after her mother (i.e. my great grandmother) passed away in year 2004, and she is under control with medicine.

After the visit, we also visited some temple in that area.

Ipoh is a place with a lot of hills (with particularly rock hills). Therefore the temples there are like.... what we hear/imagine as those in the folklore?


Ling Xian Dong 灵仙岩 (front entrance)


Ling Xian Dong 灵仙岩 (inside)


Ling Xian Dong 灵仙岩 (surrounding)

We visited Nan Tian Dong 南天洞, which is just beside the Ling Xian Dong. Unfortunately, the temple is closed (i.e. we didn't visit at the temple operational hour）


Me and my grandpa


My uncle and his father

They are small temples so it didn't take us a long time to visit.

Oh, back to the topic, so from KL -> Ipoh, it takes about 1 hour 45 minutes.

So during the long journey, inevitably, we will talk. (of course)

So when we talk, we'll talk of the latest topic.

Then we talked about the food price, that's when we started whining.

Some short summaries:

1) The fuel price dropped, but the food price didn't
2) So did the goods price
3) Instant noodle that cost RM2.50 half year ago is now nearing RM4.00
4) The retailers claim that they couldn't drop the price earlier because "they haven't sold out the stock they bought at the higher price"
5) Few months down the road, it's still the same.
6) It is so, oh, not worth it to live in Malaysia
7) Why do we need to drive?
8) It's expensive to drive
9) Cars are very expensive
10) Why is the public transport no good?
11) Why is the road not in good condition?
12) The highway with toll is a pure blood-sucker. They take money from citizen as well as government
13) Why is the road sign not clear?
14) Oh the hills in Ipoh are losing the trees
15) No wonder the weather is getting hotter and hotter nowadays

Etc.

Apparently, whining can get everybody together, and also bridge the generation gap ;)

Verdict: A fantasy movie that is O.K to watch

The movie tells about the storyteller(s) who could turn the story into reality.

The bad guys came into reality, the main character's wife went into the story, and they had to fight their way to turn everything back to normal.

A movie that is more for kids. :-)

Rating: 6/10

Verdict: A-class fight choreography, E-class storyline

One thing I must put the thumbs up is the fighting in the movie. Tony Jaa is swift, agile etc

But the story... is like a rojak and they are like fighting in a United Nation.

You get to see ninja, Chinese fighter, boxer/wrestler, samurai, a woman possessed by tiger, a woman possessed by crow... etc

That made the story not quite make sense but I truly enjoyed the fight choreography.

Rating: 5/10

The result: I'm satisfied

It's clearly that insufficient salt & soy sauce were the problem.

Comment from my family:

Mum: Too salty (as usual, cos she likes the food to be not so salty), and you are supposed to soak the peanuts for 6 hours (!)
Sister: You've finally passed to cook soup
Father: The peanuts was nice to chew

My mum said we'd need to soak the peanuts for 6 hours for it to release some sort of bad element (I dunno what is that btw)

With the ingredient shown above, there are some missing ones as well:

i) it's a full bowl of peanuts
ii) a garlic (peeled)

How I cook this time is also different, because I'm sort of in rush:

1) The half pot of water was first boiled (with medium fire)
2) Pour in the pork ribs
3) Cook for another 10-15 minutes (this is to let the water filled with the meat's essence, so to say)
4) Pour the rest of the ingredients (garlic, pitted red date and peanuts)
5) Cook with medium fire for the next 30 minutes
6) Cook with small fire for the next 2 hours 30 minutes
7) Put 1.5 tea spoons of salt, 2 table spoon of soy sauce & 2 table spoon of fish sauce
8) Cook until the soup boils

Et voila!

I'll tell the result later this evening. :-) Gotta go now.

With the ingredients above,

i) I cooked for 3.5 hours
ii) Put some soy sauce
iii) Put 1 tea spoon of salt (i'm supposed to put two, because I...)
iv) Put some fish sauce
v） Cook until the soup boils

Then, the comment from my mum was.... ok, the taste is a bit thin, but still ok
my sis: very thin, failed

There's no comment from my father

I guess I should put more soy sauce and salt :-)

We followed Trevor's family back to Penang - Trevor's daddy's hometown.

The reason I put a "we" is because Emoody, which is part of the car's item (yah, the car is his primary home) followed us back.

But in Penang, he stayed in the house for most of the time.


Colleen decided to make Emoody slightly sissy, hence the photo. Introducing Emoody the Sissy.



Then I was sitting on a "hill", only to find out that it's Trevor's tummy.


He needs to cut down the weight, especially the tummy. Period.

Uncle Ray, another teacher, aunty Siew Yong, my mum, my sis and me

Aunty Siew Yong is my parents old friend.

She married to an English (Welsh to be exact).

They are teachers in international school so they've been teaching in different international school in different countries.

Now they are back in Malaysia. And we visited them last Thursday.

After the dinner, we decided to take a walk around the area.


A view from the bridge


This photo is a surprise because there's firework in it

The sky from my granny's house's bedroom window

When I was in granny's house last week, I was quite bored.

Since I've got nothing to do, so I did nothing.

What I did was lying on the bed, watching the sky, looking at the clouds, see when changing, see them appearing, see them disappearing... etc

And thought nothing.

I watched until I fell asleep.

It was a good rest.

Will do the same thing next time, if there's a chance. :-)

It's killing me.

Headache everyday.

Neck pain everyday.

Shoulder pain everyday.

Joint pain everyday.

Eyes pain everyday.

I can feel that the fever is coming but it didn't come.

Good news is the dental checkup will happen tomorrow. I really feel like telling the dentist: just extract it at all cost.

Almost five months ago, one of the opposition leader Anwar wanted to "get the Barisan National member to join us by 16/9/2008, so that we could have the majority to dissolve the parliament and re-elect the new leader" (or something like that)

Now, Barisan National is able to get the "majority" in the Perak state, by using the similar trick to get the opposition party's member of parliament to leave the party, "in support of Barisan National".

Result?

This could mean few things:

1) Malaysia's politic will still be in the mess for the next few months (at least)
2) And this will definitely not help the recovery of economy
3) The Malaysian citizen's vote in the election is pointless, because the majority votes does not matter anymore - it depends on how good you can get the other parties' Member of Parliament on "party-hopping"

It's been almost 5 years since I last cook any soup from scratch (i.e. non Campbell-type soup)

I guess the preparation will be up to 1 hour due to the rusty skill.

But most importantly - it's the result that matters - a soup that the family can enjoy.

When it comes to wisdom tooth, people use the word "tooth" because it's singular.

For my case, it's plural - I have TWO wisdom teeth growing at the same time.

I can feel the shape from the gum already, but they just won't come out of the gum.

It causes some pain, weaken my immune system, made me feel heaty lately - and it's 2x the effect because I have two.

I hope visiting dentist is the last resort. But given the pain etc - should I give up these wisdom (teeth)?

Verdict: A great movie with great action, cinematography & choreography that will satisfy both Eastern & Western audience

I've decided to re-rate this movie after the second watch. I couldn't understand why I only gave 8 out of 10 in my first review.

In the second watch, I realised that this movie has good plots, good jokes, nice cinematography (the opening scene, featured on the poster above, is artistic and it looks nice), nice choreography + action scene - that's not over-violent and is able to make you feel awesome about Weng Chun.

The movie is meaningful in the sense that, it tells the difficult time that China people had faced during the Japanese occupation.

Donnie Yen has best portrayed Ip Man as well.

This movie is a must watch Chinese movie of the year. It's easy to understand (even though you don't understand Mandarin/Cantonese).

I'm looking forward to the next episode.

To me, it's in the league of classic Chinese movie.

Rating: 10/10

Verdict: A movie that gives the satisfying ending, albeit the modified story.

You'll get everything you expect from this A-movie - big scene, great CG, great fighting scene, big casts.

The storyline is modified from the original Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms, but the movie itself was added with some funny scene that helps to relax the audience, which is the good thing.

But the unfortunate part is that, because of those things (modified story & funny scene) it's not enough to make itself a Chinese classic film.

Rating: 8.5/10

When I watched this film I couldn't stop laughing, especially when Terminator shot Judas.

LOL LMAO.

Clip of the week!

Thanks to Justin for the alert.

Verdict: A B-movie that sort of meet your expectation, but nothing more.

If there's no expectation being put on this movie, you'll watch the movie without much pain.

There's nothing much you can expect from the movie. The CG is OK, the story is OK, the actress is not as sexy as the previous episodes - that's it.

I kept recalled of the movie Van Helsing - it's much better than this, with better plot and better illustration of werewolf etc.

So, don't expect much :-)

Rating: 5/10

Verdict: A movie that tries to be funny but unfortunately, not my cup of tea and also due to the bad flow of the story

Majority of the people that I know and who had watched the movie told me that it's not bad. But me and my sister thought the other wise.

We thought some of the jokes were quite low (e.g. calling the pet bird as penis, i.e. gugujiao), the flow of story is sometimes not quite well connected, some of the movie shooting is like watching a tourism Malaysia/Singapore film.

Nevertheless, I'm sure that this film will be better than All's Well, End's Well 2009.

Rating: 5/10

Verdict: The actress might be over-optimistic about life but it's worth a watch to be not so pessimistic about life :)

The story is about a woman who called Poppy, on how she deal with the life optimistically.

It's a rather normal life that she lives, but you can see that her life is so realistic that it could happen to anyone of us - and to her, she still deals with it on the positive way.

Watch it patiently (as it's slow paced) and surprisingly - the story is a pretty normal one but there are some scene I'll still feel nice when I recall. (yeah, I seldom recall the scene in a movie)

Rating: 8.5/10

That's the next target, soon.

Heard that gotta make the reservation in advance.

Reservation Phone: 1700801818

To anyone out there: Please tell me if it's good :)