Slumdog Millionairre- A worthy winner!

I don't think this film needs any introduction, does it?? Since its the biggest winner at the 81st Academy Awards with 8 awards out of 10 nominations.. Usually, watching oscar nominated films makes me feel sleepy since most of them are in the artistic vein and move rather slowly (case in point: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button which I fell asleep halfway while watching, enjoyed the original short story more).. HOWEVER:

Its an entirely different story with slumdog millionaire, as it keeps your eyes glued to the screen, wanting to know more... The story starts by asking a question in the 'who wants to be a millionaire' format, "Jamal Malik is one question away from winning 2o million rupees. How did he do it?"
A. He cheated
B. He's lucky
C. He is a genius
D. It is written

It then switches to a scene where a young man is being tortured in prison by two policemen.. (Cos as a lowly 'tea-boy' from the slums, no-one can believe that he had the knowledge needed to answer the questions). You really feel jolted as well when they electrocute him.. Brrr... When he still does not confess to cheating on the 'millionaire' game show, the inspector asks for a break and gives him a chance to tell his story.. The interesting part then begins as Jamal recalls the happenings in his life that helped him to answer each question..

The scenes are all very emotionally charged as they show life in the slums and the hardships that lower-caste Indians face.. One scene that was most memorable for me was where Jamal and Salim (his brother) see their mother killed when Hindu worshipers come to their village hunting for Muslims and killing them, during their escape, they see a little boy dressed as the god Rama, who incidentally has blue skin.. This is the explanation to how he answered the question "In depictions of God Rama, he is famously holding what is his right hand?" as it evoked memories of the day his mother died.. and the whole movies goes on in this vein..

In another scene, he knows the answer to a question about the author of a famous Indian poem as those who sang the poem well, were blinded by a gang/ syndicate that took in street children to work for them as beggars who felt that blind singing children could help them to earn more.. We learn more and more about Jamal's life through his explanations as to how he knew the answers to the questions asked on the show..

The movie shows aspects of India that one would not normally be able to see, and there are actually many scenes that are shocking and tug at your heartstrings.. The leads also contributed a lot to keep the movie going especially the child actors (who are really from India's slums, if you haven't already known by now..) but for me, Freida Pinto's performance has been overrated since she didn't really appear in many scenes, but she's really pretty, what to do...

Nearing the end of the movie, we find out the real reason why Jamal wanted to be on the show, the good news is he won the both game and his sweetheart, but somebody else died in a bathtub full of cash for that to happen.. Go watch it for yourself to know more since it really is a must watch movie in my opinion.. I really feel that this movie was a very worthy winner, in fact I'm surprised that Dev Patel (Jamal) was not nominated for best actor as he has these amazing eyes that are full of expression.. It was exciting, emotional, colourful and interesting all at the same time..

Only complaint I have is that they never explain how come two boys from the slums can end up being able to speak perfect, grammatically correct English without having any formal education, hahahha... but i ask too much!

From now on, i'm going to do my reviews properly, so:

Title: Slumdog Millionaire (2008)-Based on the novel by Vikas Swarup
Genre: mix of drama, suspense, comedy, etc etc
Director: Danny Boyle
Main cast: Dev Patel (Jamal Malik), Freida Pinto (Latika), Madhur Mittal (Salim Malik), Ayush Mahesh Khedekar (young Jamal), Rubina Ali (young Latika), Azharuddin Ismail (young Salim), Anil Kapoor (Host), Irrfan Khan (police inspector)
Rating: 4 1/2 out of 5 stars!
More info: Wikipedia

And lets end with a very uplifting part that helps you forget most of the sadness and emotions that stem up while watching the movie.. When the end credits start appearing, members of the cast are seen dancing, Bollywood style to the Oscar winning song Jai Ho by A.R Rahman, which is quite catchy by the way, and makes you feel like learning Bollywood dance (its the latest craze in US now!) :)

Can't get it out of my head..

<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3

Howie Day- Collide

The dawn is breaking
A light shining through
You're barely waking
And I'm tangled up in you
Yeah

I'm open, you're closed
Where I follow, you'll go
I worry I won't see your face
Light up again

Even the best fall down sometimes
Even the wrong words seem to rhyme
Out of the doubt that fills my mind
I somehow find
You and I collide

I'm quiet you know
You make a first impression
I've found I'm scared to know I'm always on your mind

Even the best fall down sometimes
Even the stars refuse to shine
Out of the dark you fall in time
I somehow find
You and I collide

Don't stop here
I've lost my place
I'm close behind

Even the best fall down sometimes
Even the wrong words seem to rhyme
Out of the doubt that fills your mind
You finally find
You and I collide

You finally find
You and I collide
You finally find
You and I collide

This is my fav fav favourite song at the moment.. The lyrics are so beautiful aren't they?? I'm sure I've heard it before last time but i only felt so strongly about it after watching the 'Bones' pilot (first episode)... It welds so well with the images and makes the scene even more beautiful..

So far i haven't heard other songs by Howie Day.. maybe its time to go searching... hehe... Hope everyone enjoys this song too!!

I need some variety!

Damn.. I am a real procrastinator...
So many things need to be done and i don't seem to be getting anything done just yet..

I need some exercise..
I need some motivation..
I need some good old friendship..
I need some excuse to get moving...
I need to start making some changes..

Should I start now???

I adore hugh jackman..

Anyone caught the 81st annual Academy Awards on TV yesterday?? Normally, i don't pay any attention to it, but after finding out that Hugh Jackman will be hosting this year, I decided to watch and see how it would turn out..

To my surprise, this year's Oscars was exceptionally good entertainment! Especially the most interesting opening sequence, where Jackman said that due to the recession, he would have to sponsor the opening sequence himself, haha.. and Wow, he sang really well.. he also chose Anne Hathaway (whom I quite adore) to perform on stage with him.. Oooo..



too bad I had to watch the second telecast at night instead of the live telecast tho.. Cos I felt so sleepy halfway that i missed half the show.. Who asked them to present awards like best art direction, costume, short animation, blah blah together.. Heck I missed Heath Ledger's family saying the acceptance speech :* I agree with other people on the internet who said that Steve Martin and Tina Fey had good chemistry, they also said that Daniel Craig and Sarah Jessica Parker looked good together, but to me, they were rather awkward, and their pert seemed very rehearsed, and they had many slip-ups with the words too~

On the other hand, it was worth missing the live telecast, cos i finally have my renewed passport!! After procrastinating for a couple of days weeks.. hehe... and in my opinion, the immigration department in Pekan Rabu, Johor Bahru wasn't that bad, at least I didnt experience the situation mentioned in this article :) So people, by all means, you can get your passports done there, but be sure to bring something to while away the 2-hour wait if you don't have a car if you dont want to die of boredom~

Why o why?!

Dang it.. This morning mum just asked us to check whether tickets for the Rainforest World Music Festival were available yet... and I was just scrolling through the page, reading about the performers and thinking to myself how interesting it would be a an experience.. Ok so, maybe I was channeling Dolly from 'Under One Roof' a bit and going "SOOO Exciting!!"

Then I suddenly remembered that I won't be in Malaysia during July! SH**!! so no more fantasizing about the things I would see and the pictures and can take and all that for me~ :( Hope my bro would remember to update me about what goes on.. Waaa... Why is everything exciting happening while i'm not here to join in?!

Some things I might be missing out on:

Fat man playing the flute
Half-naked dancing ladies
Looking at numerous angmoh old men..
Squeezing through a sweaty crowd..

Hahahhaa.. okok, enough being a sour grape, I just hope the rest of my family does go to this amazing event.. I think I shall purchase the tickets on ticketcharge for them right now..

Pink Panther 2~

I know this is rather late, but i'm sure there are still people who haven't watched this movie yet, so here goes..

Continuing from Pink Panther 1 also starring Steve Martin as Inspector Closseau, the savior and guardian of the magnificent pink panther diamond, he has been sent to do parking duty by his boss who can't stand him for being such a bumbling idiot.. Meanwhile, famous artefacts have been stolen from different countries and a dream team is being set up to try to stop the thief.. and guess what, Closseau has been invited to join the team of experts from Britain, India, Italy and Japan.. haha, no US??

Of course, we all know that Closseau is actually a fluke who solved the case kind of accidentally so he kind of pisses off his fellow teammates by destroying evidence or providing stupid theories, if I were there i would have strangled him! After typing all the way here, i suddenly realised that, hey, this show really does not have any important points for me to mention, mostly its just stupid antic after stupid antic, its like Jean Reno's character as Closseau's assistant is the only person with a brain in the movie.. >.<..

In a nutshell, the 2 main things in the plot:
Closseau loses girl to rival, does stupid things to try to win her back.. at the same time, proves to his assistant that being old and single is not such a good idea.. Gets girl in the end, and they get married..
Diamond gets stolen and thought to be destroyed by thief with a bullet wound, but who turns out to be a fake thief and *gasp* someone in the team is the thief! (this part is kind of a twist in the plot lah, but just a teeny twist, don't expect too much..) Closseau saves the day (or the diamond) again!

Overall, eventhough some parts did make me laugh a little, i still think that its quite a stupid movie, one that you would watch when there are no better choices available for you or if your laughter switch is very sensitive.. honestly not a movie that I would watch again.. hahaha.. However don't take my word for it, maybe other people find it an excellent movie! Heck, I wouldn't know would I??!

PS: It did make me laugh a little~

Bowling is for the young and young at heart!

I have got to admit, I had a much much better Valentine's Day than I had previously imagined.. Maybe cos lot of small tiny details that most probably won't matter to other people, matter a lot to me..

First stop was to Pizza Hut with my mum, cos we didn't want her to feel left out on Feb 14th, the amazing thing was that the service at the Plaza Angsana outlet in Johor Bahru had the most superb service, and good service just does wonders to your mood!

After lunch, off we went to the bowling alley (minus mum), my first time in 4 years I think, not that I have the chance to get rusty, since I was never that good before anyway.. >.<>

Angsana Bowl (and flying fish, wth.. :D)

Someone got a strike! but it wasn't me >.<

Bowling with hamburgler >.<

Oooo... we have so many balls!! :)

The longkang washer *shy*

Dunno why still so happy getting zero??!

I clearly remember the first time I went bowling with my form 5 classmates, and the first time I bowled i got a strike.. I remember thinking at that time that 'Hey, maybe I have the talent for this, maybe i can go on to be a national bowler!' Fat hope that, national drain washer more like.. But anyhow, its kind of good for sweating and gives you a chance to laugh at other people when they bowl, haha...

After that we went on to our second destination- City Square, but not before getting free Cornetto(s) from the 'love sparks' event.. we just had to pass the giant cone to the person behind and then we got free normal sized Cornetto Cones! Yums.. Walls is so kind to give people free ice-creams, besides, I love Cornetto(s), so whats not to be happy about?! :)

Got to City Square just in time to watch the auditions for Road to Hollywood, or something to that effect, and honestly, most of the contestents sang horribly off-key! Sigh, if I were a judge, I would be lambasting everyone for torturing people's ears.. Eh, I didn't want to listen oso k, just that I was enjoying a cup of bubble tea on one of the floors and had a clear view of the contestants... The only ones that had potential in my opinion, were these 2 girls below who sang Lasy Marmalade together, they had really powerful voices and knew how to ad-lib a bit too.. I can say I quite liked their performance.. :)

The weird thing was, my brother came back and told me about hearing them sing when he was at city square earlier, which means we were at the same place at the same time! I also met ms Daphny and her bf strolling around, JB got so small meh, heh...

Wrapped up a very satisfying day by watching Pink Panther 2 starring Steve Martin and Aiswarya Rai, that was quite funny in some parts despite reviews, will do my own review soon.. Also had dinner at sushi king, which also brough me some happiness, cos our food arrived faster than people who reached earlier than us, hahhahaha.. Some people are just lucky.. :)

My only comment now is, why are there more and more gay/ lesbian couples lately, is it also cos of global warming or cos those who used to hide away now dare to announce their feelings in public?? Hmm. I swear, I saw at least 3 confirmed homosexual couples, and dozens more suspects..

Oh yea, and the gladiator sandals are definitely overrated!! I counted more than 10 pairs just by watching people at the cinema alone, goodness knows how many pairs there were in total in the whole building?! Stop buying them people, I beg you!! @.@.. (luckily I don't own a pair lah.. hahahaha...) getting quite tired of seeing them everywhere already~

My new L.O.V.E!

Are you as excited as me when you see this word?? Its ok if you say no cos i know there are people who receive even more expensive gifts than this all the time, but for me, its not often that someone presents me with a luxurious bottle of perfume that is incidentally imported from France.. :) XoXoXoXo to the person who gave me this! :*



The whole glamorous package, i really, really <3 the gold and black ribbon and the chanel wrapping paper (not pictured)... SOooo pretty!!


This is what the bottle actually looks like, couldn't quite capture the exact colour in the dim light at my dining room...

A short introduction:
Chance Eau Fraiche (Eau Fraiche=Fresh Water) is actually a spin-off from the original Chance and it has notes that include citron, water hyacinth, jasmine absolute, white musk, vetiver, amber patchouli and teak wood.. I absolutely have no idea what vetiver is but all i can say that it smells quite good.. This perfume comes in 2 sizes, 50ml and 100ml and mine is the smaller version, I think it will last me pretty long tho, cos I can't bear to spray it on every single day mah...

Overall, the scent is not very heavy and its a fresh kind of smell that won't make the people beside you gag or suffocate, and most importantly, it lasts! I wore it for a whole day through a sweaty bowling game and through 2 shopping centres in the same day and the bf still said i smelt nice in the evening.. hehe... :D

You might as well picture me in that photo cos tats pretty much what I felt like doing when I realised what I had gotten for V-day, jumping for joy, that is, but it would have been kind of ridiculous if I really did that in the middle of the night at home, so i'll let the model do the work instead lah! >.<...

A weird kind of essay..

I just want to lament on the poor standard of English the majority of people in Malaysia today have.. The example below is one of the most eye-popping essays I have ever read, and believe me, I have seen my fair share of horrible english, but this is unbelievable.. Read on and then you'll see..

***********************************************************************

An Accident

I have seen many school accidents. Extremely terrorist, did not why can make into this. The school accidents time calculates much, has broken, the hands and feet is injured, is sheared by the sharp and so on the similar accidents.

Myself also has in the school outside the feelings, at that time my friends and I very afraid and frightens. The matter is occurs like this, when under staircase hasn't held the steady parapet to lag behind by the friends, the both feet soars with the staircase collision, gives people a hard time sits in ground, the friends holds me to get up immediately can stand up. With a limp turns back in the class, only the discovered the both feet ankle area is tumescent, exaggerates very much!

The really cannot bear the ache, rescues the room to ask teacher to solve the ache. Takes off the sock and shoe, teacher frightens the ankle area the tumescence, take ZHENG GU SHUI to scratch for me, doesn't have the good spot feeling. Teacher suggested I am called the parents to come the school to lead me to go home, I didn't have the agreement to return to the class to attend class, because also had several to have to be on vacation from school.

Afterwards, I cannot go to school for 2 weeks rests in home. That section of period is very laborious, cannot walk, goes see a doctor wants others to hug me, goes to bathroom when solves restroom on oneself. When goes to the school, but also cannot walk must depend on sits wheelchair motion to attend class and so on, has the friends to help me, so lucky and thanks. Sits all day very tired, I know disabled person's feeling.

After the accident, ankle area before is easy than do injury, I become more careful, feared injuries once more.

*********************************************************************

I did not edit anything, and although the first time I read it, I nearly died laughing, in the end I just felt really sad and sorry for the poor girl (who is taking her SPM exam next year by the way). How can not one sentence have the right structure? She is in my mum's tuition class, and its really that bad until mum had to strike off the entire essay (the first time this has ever happened, I believe) as it was completely meaningless.. This takes direct translation from chinese to a whole new level.. Even my brother and me who are kind of expert in reading directly translated texts had trouble comprehending this!

Its bad enough that this girl is in a private school that encourages memorising, but I think that many students are like her, being ruined by the electronic dictionaries! What the heck, words like tumescent and sheared and parapet appeared in that essay of hers! O.o.. and eventhough she is already struggling, her parents don't seem to be concerned about her yet.. Its such a shame really.. Can't anyone tell that our current education system isn't exactly doing wonders??! Why else could our parents from previous generations learn such good english in school last time??!

Grr.. please lah, minister of education, I think something needs to be done pretty soon, otherwise the standard of english in Malaysia will be reaching the South Pole pretty soon >.<...

The new lodger..

Another catty post.. I swear, readers of my blog will either be turned into cat-lovers or be so put off by all my feline stories that they never return again, haha...


This little cutie appeared in my garden just recently, apparently, it was born in my house but was taken away by its mother and i dont know how it ended up here all by itself.. It sure has come a long long way tho, cos in the beginning, it was very afraid and wary of people and fled or hissed every time someone tried to go near it.. In fact, i was the one who managed to get it to start trusting people.. *proud* :) I spent quite a lot of time squatting outside and enticing it with cat food ok... Now, instead of being afraid of people, it tries to get everyone who comes to my house to play with it instead..

Realise how i typed 'it' instead of he or she the way i usually do when i talk abt animals?? Thats cos we made a huge huge blunder regarding the sex of this baby, all along we had been calling it 'girl' and 'she/her' but turns out, its actually a boy! This fact we only found out about much later when we noticed some bumps at its rear, haha.. Anyway, according to this website, its hard to be sure until a kitten is a few months old, whether its male or female, so its not my fault k.. :)

Hello, my name is "Pig"

What is worse was that this little kitty didn't even have a name until a few days ago, before that we kept calling it oui or girl or cat, haha.. we're pretty bad at naming pets anyway.. I got the brainwave about the name all of a sudden when i was feeding it, since its always yelling for us to feed him whenever he sees us open the door, no matter how many meals its eaten, i ended up asking it whether it was actually a pig, and the name just stuck and we ended up calling it 'pig pig' or just 'pig'.. which i think is rather cute.. He better not grow up to be one of those domineering giant male cats, otherwise i'm sure he'll be mighty embarrassed when we keep calling him 'pig'..

Just look at its tummy!

He's been up to plenty of mischief since the short time he's been with us, eg. trying to catch the fish in the fish tank and almost falling in while doing it or messing up the shoes of my mum's students so that they always have to search for their shoes before they can go home after classes.. He really seems to love shoes and pant legs and feet cos he cant help playing with these thing whenever he has the chance, and another of his favourite pastimes is also untying shoelaces, hahhaha..

So far, he's only been whacked by my mum with the cane once, due to jumping onto the dining table, but most of the time he's just been mainly cute.. So just hopefully, he'll stay with us until he grows up lah, since his mum doesnt seem to want him anymore also.. but if he continues eating the way he does, i think we'll need a fortune to raise him >.<...

All things reunion-ny

Feeling hungry?? haha.. cos now that its the last day of Chinese New Year, i finally have the time to sit down and talk about the food i had for my reunion dinner.. oh, please.. i'm just 2 weeks late only.. :D

Well, this year we made some little changes and decided not to travel anywhere for our new year (we usually go to either KL or Penang).. but before that, approximately3 days before chinese new year eve, my dad's side of the family had a sit down dinner at a proper restaurant as a sort of symbolic reunion

Uncles and aunts on my dad's side..

we tossed this!

giant fish..

All i have to say regarding that lunch is that the portions were all humongous! there were only 6 dishes for 9 people, but it seemed enough to feed 2 tables, hahahaha.. and anyway, the food wasn't that great either, beware of yau kee restaurant in Rawang.. not nice food for not nice prices.. and the funny thing was that my aunt complained to the manager about the portions, she must have thought that we were weird, cos dont people usually only complain if the portions are too small??! Didnt take pictures of the chicken, prawns and other things tho, cos older people kind of think it weird if you take pictures of your food, haha...

Our own reunion dinner

only 4 people this year but anyway the food was great.. home-cooked meals are always the best! Not that i don't miss having reunion dinner with my cousins and relatives in Penang, but its always nice to have a change, and a warm cosy dinner with only your own family isn't a bad thing..

My favourite leek and tofu and 烧肉..

Steamed prawns

5 dishes for 4 people! :)

Ate a lot this chinese new year, lots of cooking by mum and dad *yums*, until i cant really remember what i ate.. Too bad that i've been having this irritating cough that won't go away, cos i missed out on the mandarin oranges this year.. sob sob.. Wish me well people, cos i feel like my ribs are about to crack from too much coughing.. Well, if i'm lucky, maybe my ab muscles will appear soon enough from the strain.. >.<..

oh yea and last but not least, something i liked a lot, prosperity yee sang with salmon slices, tossed in th comfort of our own dining table, very nice~

PS: supposed to make prints of my dad's family photo, but kind of in the lazy mood right now.. and tired too, from coughing.. :(

I am so addicted...

Forgive me if i haven't been updating as much as i should.. but something has been keeping me rather busy lately.. :D Since i discovered this amazing website that allows you to watch shows without wasting time downloading, i've been hooked.. I'm talking about PPStream.. and one show that i've been following since about a week ago is 'Bones'...

Starring David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel as the leads-FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth and Dr Temperance Brennan Bones & Booth).


Every episode has a grisly murder in it where the victim is either half decomposed (rotten) or only a skeleton and Bones and her team of expert scientists have to identify the victime and together with Booth, solve the murder.. One reason I like the show so much is because eventho dead bodies are supposed to be scary-looking and gory but they manage to make them look quite interesting and sometimes even cute (eg "that guy was stabbed, killed and dismembered, nothing worse could happen to him" and on cue, the eyeball falls off from the skull... haha)

Besides, the script is so witty and funny that every episode makes you laugh at some point even though the topic dealt with is a gruesome murder.. One thing they keep poking fun at are the brainiac scientists who make up the team of forensic experts (or 'squints' as Booth calls them, cos they have keep peering through microscopes, thus making them squint O.o..) and because the team is made up of a whole bunch of weird people, its already a funny situation in itself.. There's a bug and slime expert who is paranoid about conspiracy theories, an artist who reconstructs faces, a nerd who has an IQ of 163++ and Bones herself who does not believe in issues like religion, superstitions or psychology (she argues frequently with Booth about these issues, and its always funny to watch those parts)..


Oh ya, and one more reason i like the show, have i mentioned that David Boreanaz is so damn cute?! I never liked him as Angel (from Buffy the vampire slayer and the spin-off Angel) but he is just too cute here, acting as the former sniper with a hero complex, and who thinks he is too 'man' too indulge in emotions and stuff, heck, he doesn't even dare to say words like breasts or vagina and stuff like that.. In fact, a lot of the jokes in the series come from him.. That doesnt mean that the other characters are not funny tho, i'm especially fond of Dr Hodgins (go watch if you wanna know what i'm talking about)..

Yea, i'm already at season 4 now, looking forward to the latest episode, which is titled "The Princess and The Pear", haha, even the titles all sound interesting.. For more information on episodes : click here.. I am sooo hooked on this show, watch it people cos i really do hope you can get why i like it so much~

and read this to understand more..

Why do people like fireworks??

Can you guess what are those bright blobs in the above pictures? Beautiful? Or not... They're are actually pics of fireworks captured using my phone's camera.. Yea, makes you wonder whether these things have really been banned in Malaysia if you can watch a fireworks show right from your upstairs window?!

I hate it when people start setting off those really loud banging ones that wake the whole neighbourhood.. I mean, if you want to play and burn yr money up, fine, but at least be a little considerate and play with those that only pop once or at least don't sound like miniature bombs..

Why the government was right in banning these stupid things or at least confining them to certain areas such as countdown celebrations or such:

-scares babies
-scares cats and dogs
-scares old people with heart problems
-makes the place smell
-causes accidents
-disturbs the peace
-disturbs people sleeping
-disturbs people watching tv
-irritates me~ O.o..

I know that traditionally firecrackers were used to ward off evil spirits during the new year.. so ok lah, but don't have to set them off at night right.. and what about those other types that make a hell lot of noise and don't even look pretty.. In my opinion, if you can't afford a pyrotechnic expert who can come up with beautiful fireworks that look like footprints, or at least like little hearts, then don't bother putting up yr own firework show lah.. and NO, you wont be appreciated!