You know, for all the weddings we've been to, it's the weddings of those that we've grown up with that makes us feel our age the most. Last year there was 'Nic's, and now this year we'd just been for Ty's and KE's wedding is coming up in a few month's time. Well to be honest there's been quite a number of secondary school mates already married, but those we're not close with to start.
But it all really makes you feel, hey, these guys have passed another milestone, you're still behind...
But then again we're not one who'd be prepared for wedding anytime present, whatwith us being poor and destitute, so we'll just stay very much unmarried and attend whatever wedding ceremonies we're able to.
Interesting enough we note that we find it much easier to catch up with the uni friends than with secondary school friends at weddings. Probably because with uni friends we can all talk shop, while with secondary school friends there's many that we have never kept in touch for more than 10 years now, or were just never that close with to begin with.
Bound to be a few moments where we go, "Dang what was so-and-so's name again?" as all we would remember is which class he was from.
So prettyboy Ty and Shy have tied the knot, after eight years of walking out with each other. And 'Nic and LiL were together for seven years before walking down the aisle?
Is there a trend here among La Sallians?
In his speech, Ty quoted Sam Keen:
"You come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by seeing an imperfect person perfectly."
He didn't quote it perfectly lah, but we're sure Shy would still love him perfectly as he would her. After all, the list of why he likes her is rather extensive (she didn't give a speech and state her list tho'). And thankfully his speech wasn't in legal jargon (we heard that the hengdais had to decipher the zhimuis demands as they were in legalspeak).
Anyways, we're rambling on when we should be wishing a perfect marriage to the newlyweds.
Well yes we don't have any good photos because we forgot our camera...we're not perfect either.
We don't really know how to tell you this, your nostrils are insulting. We think we realized it that night you picked your nose at the mental hospital and we saw you hit on the Catholic Priest. We're sure you're frostbitten enough to understand how awful you are. We're returning your car to you, but we'll keep your left ear as a memory. You should also know that we get sick when we think of your feet and our friendship is ruined.
Go drown yourself, Janvier
Just because we received a hate blogpost (haha) from Hyperion doesn't mean that we should take it out on him again. And since we were talking with Alex (there's no need for us to write such a blogpost to our Chief) and he can pass the love along...
Here's how you do it :
Dear (Someone you recently talked to), I don't really know how to tell you this, (1). I think I realized it (2) (3) and I saw you (4) (5). I'm sure you're (6) enough to understand (7). I'm returning (8) to you, but I'll keep (9) as a memory. You should also know that I (10) and (11).
(12), your name
1) What's the color of your shirt? Blue - I'm in love with your cat Red - Our affair is over White - I’m joining the Convent Black -Our romance is over Green- Our socks don't match Grey - You're a leprechaun Yellow - I'm selling myself for candy Pink - Your nostrils are insulting Brown - The mafia wants you No shirt - Purple hedgehogs want to destroy you Other -I dislike your eyelashes
2) Which is your birth month? January - That night you picked your nose February -When I quoted Forrest Gump March - When your dwarf bit me April - When I tripped on peanut butter May - When I threw up in your sock drawer June - When you put cuffs on me July – When I saw the purple monkey August - When you smacked my ass September - Last year when you peed your pants October - When we skinny dipped in the bathtub November - When your dog humped my leg December - When I finally changed my underwear
3) Which food do you prefer? Tacos - When we skinny dipped in the bathtub Chicken- In your car Pasta - Outside of your office Hamburgers - Under the bus Salad – As you were eating Kraft Dinner Lasagna - In your closet Kebab - With Jean Chrétien Fish - In a clown suit Sandwiches - At the Elton John concert Pizza - At the mental hospital Hot dog - Under a street light Annat- With George Bush and Stephen Harper
4) What's the color of your socks? Yellow - Ignore Red - Put whipped cream on Black - Hit on Blue - Knock out Purple - Pour syrup on White - Carve your initials into Grey - Pull the clothes off Brown - bit of Orange - Castrate Pink - Pull the pants off of Barefoot - Sit on Other - Drive over
5) What's the color of your underwear? Black - My boyfriend White - My father Grey – The Catholic Priest Brown – The Montreal Canadian’s goalie Purple - My corned beef hash Red – My knee caps Blue - My salt-beef bucket Yellow - My illegitimate child in Ghana Orange - My Blink 182 cd Pink – Your ‘My Little Pony’ collection Other --The elephant in the corner
6) What do you prefer to watch on TV? One Tree Hill - Senile Heroes- Frostbitten Lost - High Simpsons- Cowardly The news - Scarred American Idol - Masochistic Family Guy - Open Top Model - Middle-class Annat -shamed
7) Your mood right now? Happy - How awful you are Sad - How boring you are Bored - That I get turned on only by garbage men Angry - That your smell makes me vomit Depressed – That we’re related Excited - That I may pee my pants Nervous - The middle-east is planning their revenge on you Worried - That your Ford sucks Apathetic - That you need a sex-change Silly - That I'm allergic to your earlobes Cuddly - That Santa doesn't exist Ashamed - That there is no solution to you being a dumb kid Other - That your driving sucks
8) What's the color of your walls in your bedroom? White - Your toe ring Yellow - Your love letters to me Red - The pictures from Vegas Black - Your pet rock Blue - The couch cushions Green - Your car Orange - Your false teeth Brown - Your nose hair clippers Grey - Our matching snoopy underwear Purple - Your old New Kids on the Block blanket Pink - The cut toenails Other - Your Hannah Montana underwear
9) The first letter of your first name? A/B - My virginity C/D - Your photo with the moustache drawn on it E/F - Your neighbors dog G/H - The oil tank from your car I/J - Your left ear K/L - The results of that blood-sample M/N - Your glass eye O/P - My common sense Q/R - Your mom S/T - Your collection of butterflies U/V - Your criminal record W/X – Your sucide note Y/Z - Your credit cards
10) The last letter in your last name? A/B - Love your sweet, sweet ass C/D - Always will remember the pep talks E/F -Never will forget that night G/H – Will not tell the authorites that you stole the whale from the backyard. I/J – Mocked you behind your back constantly K/L - Hate your cooking M/N - Told in my confession today about the moose poaching O/P - Told my psychiatrist about the bruises Q/R - Always wanted to break your legs S/T - Get sick when I think of your feet U/V - Will try to forget that you broke my heart W/X - Haven’t showered in a month Y/Z – am better off without you
11) What do you prefer to drink? Wine- Our friendship is ruined Soft drink – I’m off to lead a new life as a lemon Soda – I will haunt you when I’m reincarnated as an Eskimo Milk - The apartment building is on fire Water – I'm scratching my butt as you read this Cider– I have a passionate interest for mice Juice – You ruined my attempts at another world war Mineral/Vitamin water – You should get that embarrassing rash checked Hot chocolate – Your Cucumber-fetishism is weird Whiskey - I love Oprah Winfrey Beer – Thanks for the Cocaine Other – you should stop picking your nose
12) To which country would you prefer to go on a vacation? Thailand – Warm tingly sensations Australia - Best of luck on the sex change France - Love always Spain - With tears of sadness China – You make me sick Germany – Please don’t hurt me Japan - Go milk a cow Greece - Your everlasting enemy USA - Greetings to your frog Leonard Egypt – Kiss my butt England - Go drown yourself.
Citibank loves the Chief. Must be the spending power. Just not too long back the Chief got an offer from them to get tickets for MPO's Symphonic Oscars, buy one get one free. Not only were we interested, but it would be good to experience the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra from the audience perspective instead of the performer's perspective.
So there we are, all dressed up for the threes (not the nines because it being a Sunday, it was a matinee performance) and at KLCC. As usual we parked somewhere across the road where the rates are cheaper (trust us, when you had to go to KLCC for rehearsals that may take the entire day, you learn to find cheap parking...but then again the Chief always knows where to get cheap parking in the first place), walked over to KLCC, headed to the ticketing counter to collect the tickets, and received not only our tickets but a complimentary parking coupon as well. Allows for cheaper parking for some maybe 4 hours or so but well, now we know.
So what Citibank offers doesn't just stop at a B1F1 (buy-one-free-one) and a parking coupon, but they've also thrown in the free use of KLCC's Gendang Suite for while waiting for the performance to begin and during intermission, as the tickets were for Box Seats. On our way up, we'd help a couple take photos by the poster, nicely catching the entire poster and the couple, but in return the fler took a photo of us and the Chief with the background showing the poster that we're attending the 'YMPHONIC OSCARS'. Sakai.
Well at least all other shots were taken properly.
The Gendang Suite is comfy, and upon entry there was a little tray set out with cups and teabags. Innocent us thought that they were complimentary, but thankfully we haven't helped ourself as we soon found out that we had to pay for them. It would definitely sting to pay for overpriced Lipton when we're not expecting it.
Otherwise, the suite was very comfy for the two of us (seems like Citibank no loves anyone else, not even us) with the exception of a staff to wait on us, even when it was made very clear that we were not going to order and refreshments, thank you, no, there isn't anything we would need at this time, it's ok, we're fine...After a while, she left us alone and we'd shut the door to further indicate privacy wanted. Click.
Privacy to take photos to our heart's delight. But of course, ahem, no photography is allowed in Dewan Filharmonik Petronas during a performance.
During the intermission, however, the door was back open and the staff was waiting by the door again. We gave in and ordered some desserts to while the time away.
The music was good, even though we only knew probably half the selection of songs. Because of our Lord Of The Rings Symphony stint, we paid a bit of attention to the conductor and found him to be a much more livelier fellow who almost jumps about as he conducts. The Chief notes that the soloist couldn't be heard clearly tho', and we concur - when she sings the same notes and the orchestra, we couldn't hear what word it was.
Otherwise we were very much entertained by it all, altho' sitting in the box seat means dragging our chair a bit closer to the balcony and angling it such a way that we didn't have to stretch our necks much to see the entire orchestra.
Next up is checking out when the Lord Of The Rings Symphony will be showing nearby Bolehland so that we can appreciate it (while singing along under our breath) from the audience's perspective! And in good seats (limited by what the poor can afford)! We still cannot believe that they were in Sporeland just middle last year and we didn't catch it!
18 March 2009 9:00am: Janvier and Chief are attending Penang Business & Leisure Trip. 12:00pm: Janvier added Berjaya Georgetown Hotel to Places I'd Like To Visit. Chief likes this.
19 March 2009 6:30am: Chief is surprised that Janvier woke up at the first wake-up call. 6:30am: Janvier is surprised that he woke up at the first wake-up call. 9:30am: Janvier is looking for Restoran Xin Quan Fang for the curry mee. 9:40am: Chief is asking for directions. 9:45am: Chief is sad that Restaurant Xin Quan Fang is closed. 10:00am: Janvier is having soup kuey teow and ice cream soda (with ice cream) in iPoh. 10:00am: Chief is having hor hee and ice cream soda (with ice cream) in Ipoh. 3:00pm: Janvier wonders what is that smell at the Penang bridge toll?! 3:00pm: Chief is waving the air freshener in front of the aircon. 3:30pm: Janvier is eating pie tee and cendol. 3:30pm: Chief is eating laksa, rojak and cendol. 4:00pm: Janvier and Chief have added Berjaya Georgetown Hotel to Places I've Visited. Chief comments: :( Janvier comments: :( 4:20pm: Chief is in room 2214. Hey, aren't we suppose to get a room on the 26th floor or higher? 4:30pm: Janvier is told that there has been a staff mistake and they will be upgraded to a bigger suite. 4:30pm: Janvier is thinking that it's not an upgrade, we're just getting the room we reserved! 4:30pm: Janvier is in room 2612: separate living room and bedroom. Why is the closet not in the bedroom? Chief likes this. 4:45pm: Chief is FB-ing from Berjaya Georgetown Hotel now :) 5:00pm: Janvier has added photos to the album '090319 - Berjaya Georgetown Hotel'. 8:00pm: Chief is shopping at Gurney Plaza. 9:00pm: Janvier is eating lam mee and prawn omelette at Gurney Drive. 9:00pm: Chief is eating fishball tang hoon at Gurney Drive. 10:00pm: Janvier is exhausted from driving all day.
20 March 2009 7:00am: Chief is trying to wake Janvier to go for breakfast. 9:00am: Janvier is still tired even after breakfast, and wonders if back-to-back BodyJam and BodyCombat has anything to do with it. 12:00pm: Chief is swimming and tanning at the hotel pool. 1:30pm: Janvier is eating char kuey teow at Sister's Macalister Road. 1:30pm: Chief thinks that the char kuey teow at Sisters is not as good as the last time. Janvier comments: We agree! 2:00pm: Chief is buying Him Heang biscuits. 6:15pm: Chief is eating cheese-baked rice at T-Bowl. Janvier comments: There's someone here that looks like Serm, eating a big sausage! Serm comments: There's someone here that looks like Janvier & Chief, eating out of toilet bowls! 6:30pm: Janvier has added photos to the album '090320 - Dinner At T Bowl Queensbay Mall!'. Janvier, Chief and Serm were tagged in this album. 9:00pm: Janvier is still tired! He's never felt this exhausted during his last Penang Food Trip. No more doing exhausting cardio classes before long trips! 9:00pm: Chief says Goodbye Queensbay Mall!
21 March 2009 9:30am: Janvier slept well! 10:00am: Chief is planning to swim and tan if there's sunshine later. 12:00pm: Chief is swimming and tanning at the hotel pool. 12:30pm: Janvier is falling asleep while tanning as the bright sunshine makes him squint. 1:45pm: Chief is packing up. 2:00pm: Janvier is checking out. 2:15pm: Chief says Goodbye Berjaya Georgetown Hotel (we won't be coming back)! Janvier likes this. 2:30pm: Janvier is playing Space Invaders Extreme DS with Chief while waiting for char kuey teow at Lorong Selamat. 2:35pm: Chief is drinking melted ais kacang while waiting for char kuey teow. 2:45pm: Chief can count five large prawns in the char kuey teow! 2:45pm: Janvier thinks that the char kuey teow at Lorong Selamat is worth paying RM8.50 as it comes with five large prawns and is bliss. 3:15pm: Janvier is eating ais kacang with fruits at New World Centre. 4:00pm: Chief says Goodbye Penang! 6:00pm: Chief has added Jusco Kinta City to Places I've Visited. 7:45pm: Janvier is enjoying Green Curry Fettuchine at Black Canyon Coffee, Jusco Kinta City. 7:45pm: Chief is having BBQ Chicken with Garlic Fried Rice in Black Canyon, Kinta City now. Janvier comments: BBQ Chicken without BBQ sauce! And you're eating the garlic rice with green curry some more :) 9:00pm: Chief says Goodbye Ipoh! 11:45pm: Chief is finally home. 12:30pm: Janvier is home and tired.
22 March 2009 6:30am: Janvier woke up to clear the laundry lying about his room, and is going back to sleep.
Heck, we've gotten the idea off the link that 'Nic sent to us.
So come the day of the party and there we all were, wondering what's been planned. All we knew was that we were supposed to bring recyclables aside from the presents. Were we suppose to babysit our kid the entire time? Team up for games?
Turns out that for games, there was a sort of scavanger hunt thing where the kids were split into two teams, and when the Games Master called out for an item we had this scary horde of children trampling their way over to us adults in demand of said item. Imagine: GM calls for a belt and the kids are soon stripping you without permission.
The other game, which had us using newspapers and other recyclables, had us all dressing up the kids in said recyclables. Heck if we know how to dress them up, plus we didn't remember any origami foldings then!
In desperation we looked at the kid, looked at the newspapers, and then thought about the nasi lemak we had just the other night.
And so we folded the newspaper into half...and then a square at one end...and plopped it onto the kid's head as a headpiece.
Good grief. We've practically started the kid's initiation to the KKK early. At this point we had help from Eleanor and Yulius, and none of us really had any direction as to what are we dressing our kid up as.
We thought that the kid would be inspired from the cocktail Traffic Lights, only, he is to be Traffic Cone.
Eleanor did some good work with the photography here - no wonder a few other's said that we were dressing him as a Nazgul.
Ring Fever Week must have had aftereffects even we weren't aware of.
Now last Saturday seems to be a day for birthdays. First up today: DanHen's idea of celebrating his birthday by having the guests buy presents not for him, but each guest was assigned a kid to get presents for.
Kids. We're terrified of kids we tell you. Still, The Chief was keen on the thing, and we were open to the idea because it's really a good cause so in the end we took the plunge and confirmed our attendace for the party. Then we'd to wait for the name list to see who's the kid assigned to us, so we'd know what to buy.
And we were assigned to a 14 year old boy. Cool. Much easier to shop for boys' clothes than girls, yes? We thought so until we did go out shopping - we couldn't find anything of appropriate size! At our first stop in FOS (we're poor too, and thought quantity would be a much better option to brand in this case) the tees were picked were too big and the kids section didn't have anything suitable. Even searching at Royal Sporting House and Why Pay More? came up empty-handed.
It was only till after much walking about Midvalley that we finally ended up in Jusco at the kids' section and coming across a few good tees from Seed and Padini Authentics. And whatmore at 70% off. It was at this point of shopping when we got curious...
...and so we riffled around the kid's clothes section...
...picked out a tee...
...took it to the changing room, and...
...bloody hell, we can wear kids clothes comfortably.
We don't know if we should feel happy or not with the fact, but we can now wear clothes meant for a 14 year old boy. Well, at least for t-shirts. However we will immediately pass on any Kiki Lala or Kiko clothes we ever get as presents to the assigned kid!
As we bring Ring Fever Week to a wrap, we're going to talk about another adaptation of The Lord Of The Rings. Now Yin2 surprised us when she loaned us a CD of the Lord Of The Rings Musical. We thought it was a compilation of 'Music Inspired By Lord Of The Ring' kinda CD, but after we had time to put in the CD for a listen we were surprised that there was a musical for LotR.
Anyways, a quick listen to the songs and the songs depict quite a different picture of how elves are. Not as the way the book describes them to be but more of...acrobatic tree dwellers dressed in leaves and swinging on vines. Even our initial take on rangers were a bit off-putting as they seemed more like jolly travellers on the road taken to singing as they amble along.
The CD Yin2 loaned us wasn't a complete recording but more of a 'Highlights Of...' CD, so it still left us wondering how in the world can they fit the entire story into a, what, three-hour play? Just what would be taken out? Based on what we've heard on the CD, what kind of elves are we going see portrayed? We admit we would go watch it really even though we might come out disappointed. Only, the musical didn't do so well and finished its run before we even heard about it!
Then again, there's only a few gems on the CD that we enjoyed: Prologue ('lasto I Lamath'), The Road Goes On, Saruman, The Cat And The Moon, and...and...and...well, that's it really.
Now sometime just before the Fellowship Of The Ring movie was due out, we happened to be in shopping and came across the VCD of the cartoon (yeah, VCD's were the main format then!). Of course, it looked a decent effort (based on, well, the front cover art and the screenshots shown on the back of the casing). So we got it and watched it.
In retrospect, it was a good thing that we bought it and watched it before the movie ever came out.
It's an old cartoon, mind, made in 1978! We made allowances for limitations of effects and such (although we wouldn't forgive lousy artwork), and we were surprised at some of their efforts. For instance, there was quite a fair bit of live-action sequences blended in with the animation! Sometimes, like in the beginning of the show where a narrator summarized the forging of the rings, we saw silhouettes of actors behind a red canvas and thought that it was rather lazy. Others, like in the Inn of the Prancing Pony, live action was used to model for animation and blended very well.
But what got our goat was that the show only showed up to somewhere near the end of Two Towers! It wasn't the whole show nor was it just up to Fellowship Of The Ring!
Still, is was a good effort and we forgot about it soon after.
Then we were stunned by the movie. We guess quite a number of people were. The designs, the cultures, the music, the scenery...and the jarring changes of part of the script from the book. But the bit we LOVED the most about the whole movie? The Nazgûl. Their dressing really showed them to be things to be feared about, and the choral bits gave a lot of depth to them.
Throughout the movie, though, we had this sense of deja vu...as if we'd seen that scene before. Even if it was the first time watching the movie! Then we realized that we probably seened it from the cartoon, and decided to go watch back the cartoon to compare.
It was. Effing. Painful.
Here, let's put up a comparison that we found superbly painful. Our poor Nazgûl. Here's how he is from the movies, to refresh your memory.
And here's him from the cartoon - just fast forward to the 7-minute mark. Unfortunately we had to source YouTube for the clips, and the best was this long clip. If we had some form of free video editing tool we would have clipped off just the required scene from the VCD.
The Hobbits sets forth out of the Shire, with Frodo carrying the One Ring, for they were to head to Bree and await Gandalf there to lead them on. Meanwhilst, Legolas, Gimli and Boromir set out for summons at Rivendell. 'Tis proved to be a journey that was fraught with many perils, as Saruman and Sauron have already sent out their forces in search of the Ring.
Boromir finds the Hobbits in Bree and agrees to lead them to Rivendell, but in an ambush by Uruk-hais Boromir fell foul whilst defending the Hobbits. Elsewhere Gimli skirmishes a Ringwraith and is pierced by a Nazgul Blade. Haldir joins Legolas and Gimli as they leave Rivendell to search for the Hobbits, but the company were met by orcs as they left the sanctuary of Imladris. The Nazgul wound proves fatal for Gimli, and Haldir too was lost in the battle against orcs.
The Hobbits, lost on their own, were doomed as Uruk-hais relentlessly hound their footsteps. All hope was lost. Sam and Pippin did not live to see the Great Anduin river, and Merry was taken when he held up a sword in defiance. The Shadow descended at last upon Frodo...
Welcome to Ring Fever Week! Dang, it sounds a bit MaRo saying that. But yes, this week is all about The Lord Of The Rings - you have been warned.
So last weekend we were given an alternate storyline to the Lord Of The Rings. No, not the secret diaries. But as mentioned above. This is what happened in our playtesting of the Lord Of The Rings Trading Card Game.
We happened to wander into Outpost Cineleisure and lo and behold, right on their counter there was a box of various LotR expansion boosters, and a Two Towers 2-player Starter set that caught our eye. What made that package interesting was that the set came with two starters, a CD with a playable demo, playmat, and all that for RM30.
We put it down to Outpost getting rid of old stocks as the game has stopped print already. Otherwise just a normal starter would cost RM30 and this kind of starter set would be around RM50 or so. So now we've got a better idea how the game works (since the only time we ever played it was just once with 'Nic yonks ago, and he trashed our Elf deck soundly), and a PC version to play (altho' it only feature the Theoden and Gandalf decks).
It tickles us when playing the game when Fellowship members are killed, tho'.
And it's a shame that we never did manage to get our hands on some sets of Middle Earth too, the previous LotR collectible card game.
We've always loved what Peter Jackson and team did for Lord Of The Rings. And so came that sometime after the LotR Symphony last year, we got Ring Fever again. It starts with us wanting to reread the book.
Only...last we remember, Uncle Raf borrowed it for his younger sis and we don't think we ever got it back. And we haven't really kept in touch with Uncle Raf. Should check one day whether it's still with her or not...it's a nice copy too, the large book with all three volumes and the front cover showing Gandalf (this book is pre-Peter Jackson's movies!).
All we have with us at the moment is the Silmarillion. Even our The Hobbit is missing, and we think that one is with 'Ward.
So at bookstores we were checking out the books, and sadly it isn't cheap. Paperbacks are around near RM40, while the complete novel costs RM90! The cheaper option was to get them from BookXcess for RM18 each, but we'd have to make do with different cover art (and The Two Towers was a hardback-sized paperback), but given our Silmarillion cover art is the black one with a nice centerpiece (puts us in the mind of stained glass it does), we wanted the collection to have a more uniformed look.
So we've been biding our time, looking about bookstores for decent copies. And sales.
Took us till late February when we finally had our MPH vouchers (some also courtesy of the Chief) and MPH was having some sale (books at 20%!) where every RM50 spent at MPH 1 Utama got us yet another RM5 voucher. Quite a bit of headache and calculations to do to maximize usage of our vouchers on hand, and wanting to use up the vouchers we'd be getting from our purchases tho'.
Still, in the end we were able to walk away happy with the books - gotten them separate with illustrations by Alan Lee! Of course, we had to get two more cheap Penguin classics and a workbook to do so but still...
You know, when GSC had their Gold Class movies, we always never did manage to try it out, even once. It was always, "Let's wait for a good show that's worth it," but in the end there never was one, heh. We did try out the [whatwasitcalledtheoneatgardenskahorsunway?], a cheaper option where the Chief and us watched Dark Knight.
So it happens that during Chinese New Year sis and us on a spur decided to go try out Cineleisure's Platinum Suites. Sis and us bought our tickets, preordered our food and drinks, then headed down to walk around the Curve before our movie, Underworld 3, started.
Only as we were going in for our movie did we see the lounge area meant for Platinum ticket holders. Ogawa massage chairs, free wifi, free drinks...for RM40 per ticket it was a bit of a waste not to have spend some time enjoying the perks. But that was all right, because the seats in the theatre itself made up for it. How we love the comfortable recliner seats and spacious settings. The staff brought in our food for us as we were getting comfy, and it wasn't long before we tried taking photos of the seats.
No, there wasn't any need to worry about feeling suaku as everybody else was doing it too!
We told the Chief about it and it wasn't long before we found out about RM25 shows on Sundays and made a date for Benjamin Button. The plan? Take full advantage of the lounge, then watch the 3-hour long movie in comfort.
Sunday afternoon proved to be a good choice to watch the movie as the lounge was pretty much empty, leaving us to monopolize a pair of massage chairs. Unlike the Osim chairs like 'Nic's, where sitting on one would elicit purrs of pleasure, the Ogawa chairs were a pair of serious Swedish masseur bitches. It was still good but hell loads more painful than expected!
After that, movie time. Two comfy recliner seats in the middle aisle, along with comfort food in the form of potato wedges (much recommended!), onion rings and popcorn. It was rather remiss of us, however, to not pack something for the Chief to wear to keep warm.
Overall the comfiness of it all helped ease the fact that the movie is depressing, although the movie isn't as bad as the book, which starts off lighthearted and then sucker punches you to tears near the end.
Would we do this again? Of course. Just a matter of whether we would try GSC's Gold Class for comparison, and whether we would be tempted to take up the Platinum Membership thing.
So happens that last week we had to take half the week off due to some family matter in Johor. It turned out to be a good time to have applied for leave too, as the Actor's Studio Bangsar Gala Farewell went from 7pm (call time aka get your ass here for warm up and quick rehearsal before you go eat) till near midnight! Time passed by so quickly when you're caught up in the funny acts of our Malaysian comedians and all the other performances too.
So by the time we got back and had dinner/supper of Ramly burger (double daging biasa bawang saje black pepper sos saje) and showered and all...it felt just. So. Wonderful. To. NOT have to wake up early for work the next day. Pure bliss sleeping in all the way till past noon.
So, back to the reason for leave-taking.
Friday saw dad and us taking the train down to Johor, ayup, train, because mum had driven down the day before and it made sense to come back all in one car. We left the choice of transport to dad for his comfort (not to mention that he paid...) and that was how we both ended up on the 2pm Premier Coach train. Spacious with plenty of leg room, comfy seats that recline quite a ways back, but, ultimately, still the same kind of dreadful toilets.
The difference between our last trips by train and this trip? The overnight train, we sleep the entire journey. The afternoon train? Spent looking at the cup of Coke and complimentary orange juice stuffed into the front seat pouch as we dare not risk drinking too much that we had to visit the bloody toilet.
Bloody eff eff eff eff eff toilets.
Once in Johor, however, things feel different. Childhood nostalgia and all that. There isn't really much of a sense of familiarity of the place to us, because we're the only one of the family to be born out of Johor. For us the memories are more like, "Hey, there's Holiday Plaza! Eh, no more Holiday Inn already? What took over?" and "We think we recognize that, it looks different but that should be Plaza Pelangi!" Other than the few shopping malls and hotels, we know jack about the roads and places for food and the likes.
Worse than that would be meeting the parents friends.
"Wah, boy! All grown up already ah? Still remember me or not?"
Questions of those sort worry us. These questions all come from friends of our parents since their childhood and such. To our advantage we use innocent youth to mask the fact that we can't remember them - even though we might have met them before in our earlier visits. We trust our sis to know them better, though, and do the talking, phew.
On the upside, there's the food that we'd forgotten.
Mee pok. From Lau Di Kuey Teow. Dad and us were hungry for supper while sis just wanted a drink, but after smelling the pig-oil-infested-soup, everyone caved in and ordered a bowl.
Wan tan mee. The Johor way where the noodles are mixed with chilli sauce giving it a red look instead. We, of course, opted for the non-spicy version and mixed it generously with pepper instead.
As for our trip back up from Johor, suffice to say that our bladder did not endure as well as it did on our way down. But since we were heading back by car, we stopped by at some passable R&R around near Seremban.
OK. For the last few months our desktop monitor has been on the near fritz. We're not sure if it was the monitor itself, the cable, or whatnot, but in order to get the monitor showing a steady screen rather than horizontal lines running vertically and/or static we'd to be rather gentle, stroking the monitor here, nudging it slightly there, holding it steady with one hand...
Bloody troublesome.
And since we blog in the wee hours of the night, and we'd watermark out pictures before posting them up (Photoshop is only installed on our desktop, see), we slowed down blogging. Ain't good because there'd be stuff we'll not blog down and forget in the future. After all this is where we store our memories, haha.
Anyways there was this meme going on out there and it seems something to fill here up while we get a new monitor fixed up soon.
First up, let's cut-paste the rules.
HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN ALBUM!
1 - Open http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random. The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band (alternatively, if the first article you hit is short, hit Random Article two more times).
4 - Use photoshop/paint or similar to put it all together.
5 - For tracklisting, repeat (2) by refreshing 10 times.
So here we go, after some editing with Picasa!
By the looks of it we belong in the Alternative genre. Still, while it's an interesting way to make album art and all, we're not gonna use this for our own personalized album art, haha. We think we'd be camwhoring for ours, when we get to it, heh.
But then again we're not one who'd be prepared for wedding anytime present, whatwith us being poor and destitute, so we'll just stay very much unmarried and attend whatever wedding ceremonies we're able to.
Interesting enough we note that we find it much easier to catch up with the uni friends than with secondary school friends at weddings. Probably because with uni friends we can all talk shop, while with secondary school friends there's many that we have never kept in touch for more than 10 years now, or were just never that close with to begin with.
In his speech, Ty quoted Sam Keen:
Anyways, we're rambling on when we should be wishing a perfect marriage to the newlyweds.
Sunday afternoon proved to be a good choice to watch the movie as the lounge was pretty much empty, leaving us to monopolize a pair of massage chairs. Unlike the Osim chairs like 'Nic's, where sitting on one would elicit purrs of pleasure, the Ogawa chairs were a pair of serious Swedish masseur bitches. It was still good but hell loads more painful than expected!
After that, movie time. Two comfy recliner seats in the middle aisle, along with comfort food in the form of potato wedges (much recommended!), onion rings and popcorn. It was rather remiss of us, however, to not pack something for the Chief to wear to keep warm.
