I found the Latin name for this very popular local blue flower which is also used as food dye from a friend’s blog.
Clitoria ternatea and I can understand why they call it that *wink wink*.
This is a creeper plant and my Grandmother used to have one in her back fence. Funny how I never saw the resemblance.
Casa de Solis or is it the Van der Kamp’s house on Wisteria lane? I’m not sure.
But this house is being used in a few other series as well.
It was Sarah Connor’s ex boyfriend’s house in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
It’s also Melinda Gordon’s mom’s house on Ghost Whisperer.
Wonder how many other locations Wisteria Lane doubles for.
Cool poster, huh? After months of anticipation, I finally went to watch the movie.
As the movie started and the very familiar theme music is played, I felt goose bumps all over my arm. How it brings back memories.
This is a standalone movie with no connection to the whole alien conspiracy that is prevalent in the X-Files universe. This movie is your typical Monster Of The Week (MOTW) and what better way to show a monster genre than pay tribute to the original monster creator, Dr Frankenstein himself.
I just wish that they had showed a little more gore to up the adrenaline rush. Instead, we were just given a tiny glimpse before the curtain was pulled again. Or maybe it was the censors people.
There was practically no mention of the life of Mulder and Scully after the grand finale when they escaped South of the border.
We now see Scully as a doctor at a church run hospital, still struggling to find a balance between the world and her religious values.
Mulder is still Mulder, cutting newspaper articles on anything X-File-ish and filling the walls of his study. And oh, he still sharpens pencils and throws them up on his ceiling when he’s bored. And sunflower seeds! Still loves ‘em.
However, it’s strange that 2 people who have been staying together for so many years still call themselves by their last names. Maybe it’s to keep with the X-Philes’ comfort zone. We probably can’t get the same feel if they started calling each "Fox" and "Dana".
As for the monster, what monster? There were no human anomalies type or mutants. The monster is actually the atrocities that the victims were subjected to. A very cruel experimental procedure done out of the sake of love but at the cost of another human live. Therefore it’s more a matter of "What" rather than "Who" the monster is.
All in all, I can’t say that the movie actually did anything new for the show. It will do very well as a 2-parter but nothing more than a vehicle to keep the phenomenon that was The X-Files alive. Fans will love it.
I think that it keeps the option to make more movies open. It didn’t give a conclusive end to the underlying issues, therefore no chance of screwing up unlike Indy.
One good thing about working for a guy who does business through the internet - I can practically work anywhere as long as there is internet connection.
The down side - without internet connection, nothing can be done.
That’s why today my office is the gym.
There seems to be some problems with the TMNet station at my area starting from last evening. All internet connection and phone lines were dead. The phone lines were restored this morning but not the internet connection.
It was nice going into the gym when not many people were there yet. Get to cuci mata at all the hot guys. Too bad it seems they only come in during the afternoon and will be gone by tea time.
Heck, I should have thought of coming here all those times in the past when I can’t work in the office. It is after all, the only place where I don’t have to spend a whole day’s budget on a measly cup of coffee just to use the internet connection.
It took 6 months, but I finally finished migrating all my 2,000 plus pictures from Flickr to Photobucket. Phew!
I first had my online album in Yahoo! but they decided to shut it down. Before shutting down, they gave me a few other photo sharing sites as options to send my pictures to. Since Flickr is a part of Yahoo!, it seemed logical to send my pictures there.
Big mistake!
Flickr only gives unlimited picture viewing to its paid account holders. When I first started using Flickr initially, they gave me a free trial of the paid account for 3 months. After that, my account was subjected to the limitations of a free account - the ability to view only the latest 200 pictures that were uploaded.
Yeah, silly me. I should have read their terms of usage before choosing to migrate my pictures there.
Getting my pictures out of Flickr proved to be a long, intensive process because I can only download 1 picture at a time. No bulk download available there, but then even if there is, I’m too lazy to search around for it.
Photobucket only gives me 1GB memory space for each album, but hey, as long as I can easily access all my pictures, I don’t mind having to open multiple accounts.
If you kind folks out there know of a better option, please let me know.
It was a humbling experience indeed to meet my Swiss Piew Jie Foo, R, especially when I see how well my cousin trained him in terms of our local tongue.
R can speak Malay when out at the Mamak stall, Cantonese with my aunt and Hokkien with my Grandmother.
I speak Cantonese with a heavy accent that people asked me if I came back from overseas (chaaaayyyyy) and Bahasa Pasar rather than Malay due to lack of use.
Worst of all, I don’t know what the Hokkien word is for most everday terms because I had always used English for these things. It was a big eye opener when I was transferred to the operations section of the bank and I don’t know what most of the customers were talking about.
Yeah, R is a real charmer, alright, especially to his in-laws.
It would be really pleasant too to bring him around for food, especially in Penang, seeing how much he loves Penang food.
My cousin told us during his last trip to Penang, he went to a Mamak stall for nasi kandar, then looked for chendol and after that, went to look for something else to eat, all in one morning. Needless to say, he ended up with an upset stomach by noon.
Look forward to our next makan session, R, and enjoy your trip to the durian orchard today. Yeah, he loves durians!
Which brings me to my next question - who’s the Malaysian here?
I had dinner at this quaint little place last night with a cousin who is back visiting for the summer holidays with her family. For those who don’t know where it is (I’m sure you are a rare breed), it’s that little colonial building next to QEII by the pier.
Since we were a large group, they gave us the private room. Sweet! Each of the chairs come with a cushion.
Upon looking at the menu, my Piew Jie Foo told the waiter, "Everything on the menu!", much to our shock.
The portions that came were just right. Not too much that we end up being too full.
Here’s our appetizer - spring rolls. I love the sauce they gave us for dipping. It’s a good thing for me that the spring rolls contain mostly turnips, carrots and mushrooms.
Here are our main course.
Asam prawns on the left and their Hainanese Gulai Tumis with stingray on the right. My aunt couldn’t stop gushing about how fine the stringray’s flesh was.
Notice how big the prawns’ heads were? They were all bursting with beautiful, fragrant orange roe too. Oh boy! I’ll worry about the cholesterol later on.
These are the alien dishes comprised of mix vegetables, beansprouts with salted fish, sambal petai and sambal kacang botol. Of course, I didn’t touch them.
This one, Inchi Kabin, seemed to be an absolute favorite. I took the picture, put the camera away and when I looked up, the plate was empty 
For dessert, Bee Koe Moi saturated with coconut milk. There was already lots of coconut milk in there when it was served, but I requested for more.
For those health conscious peeps, I suggest you skip this because you are gonna get a coronary when you see their coconut milk. It was so thick, I would call it coconut paste.
My aunt’s eyes nearly popped out when she saw me adding dollop after dollop into my dessert.
Hey, I’ll deal with the cholesterol later on.
They have ice cream too which my niece and nephew ordered.
And of course, this beautiful chandelier illuminated us while we caught up and shared stories with each other.
I’ve always loved chandeliers. They are a bitch to clean, but they sure are pretty.
Since we were secluded in the private room, I didn’t really get a feel of what the place was like. Plus, it was raining so there wasn’t that much patrons.
This weekend is Bon Odori, Japan’s version of our Ching Ming festival.
As usual, it will be held at our Padang Kota Lama. I’ve only been to Bon Odori a couple of times before, mostly to see an ex-colleague of mine dance. Due to her short stature, you can pick her out immediately from the group of dancers.
These little umbrellas are among some of the treasures I picked up from the many stalls that they have available. Beautiful, aren’t they?
No, you can’t put them in your cocktail. They’re too big, I think about 5 inches tall. They are made from cigarette boxes. I think it takes about 6 hours just to put 1 together. The lady who makes them sure is creative. It couldn’t be easy measuring and cutting up all those cigarette boxes so that the colors can be assembled to create a pattern like the ones seen above.
They are always a big hit and will usually be snapped up real quick.
Hehehehe…..it helps to have a friend who has an aunt in the organizing committee. She will bring some of the rarer ones to the office for us to choose. Of course we will go for those made from cigarette boxes that are not available locally. I mean, why go for Dunhill or Salem when satu jalan boleh dapat, right?
My favorite is the middle one.
It’s not very clear in this pic, but see how she arranges the designs in the white section so that it resembles lace? Creativity at its best.
Too bad the lady in question already balik kampung a few years ago, so now even if you have the money, you can’t find them any more.
The 3 precious little umbrellas I have are mine to keep.
If you have never been to a Bon Odori before, you should. Go experience a little bit of Japanese culture and watch the fireworks. Who knows what little treasures you could find amongst the stalls.
"You girls basically got the coreography right. Now you just need to have confidence in yourselves that you can get it right," Conny told us last night.
We’re starting to learn to dance with a veil. It’s been 2 months and I don’t think we even reached the halfway point of the coreography yet.
You’d think that being in the advanced class we were pass the awkwardness in the beginners phase. Nope, that stayed with us, especially now that we are dancing with props.
Our attentions were too focused on the technicalities - how to hold the veil, hand positions, body positions, which leg starts the next step and the fact that we can’t make it look as good as Conny - that we lose sight on just enjoying ourselves.
I guess that’s what people mean by dancing and not showing the coreography - being able to convey to people the energy and joy of the dance.
Conny’s right. We have to practice harder to make it look as good as her but most of all, just enjoy ourselves knowing that we ARE good enough.
Brazilian waxing has gotta be the best invention in the world for womankind.
I must admit, before I got my first Brazilian, I never gave a lot of thought to the conditions down South. You know, as long as conditions remain sterile, that is. And oh, when Aunt comes a-visitin’, yeah, that’s a real bitch. But other than that, everything was fine and dandy.
Nowadays, one, just one new growth and out come the tweezers or the wax strips if I’m too lazy.
I actually started on the Brazilian on a DIY basis, which has resulted in lots of injury and the occassional bleeders. Well, there was virtually zero professional Brazilian waxers in this tiny island at that time.
I was introduced to my first professional job by a gal pal during a trip to KL. I can’t thank you enough for that, E. Muax!
Now that there is a place to do it in my own backyard, I can happily make my monthly trips there.
My fave therapist, bless her, with her sweet smile and incredibly large, bright eyes, always takes amazing care of me.
Oh, the freshness after each treatment, makes me skip out of there with a silly grin on my face.
She told me once that since I manage to maintain it well enough on my own, I can just go in once every 2 months. OMG! I think I’ll go crazy.
One thing about a Brazilian, once you got it, you must have it all the time.
