First Movie of The Year 2009 - Ip Man

Happy New Year 2009! It's the first day of 2009 but I feel I am living in yesteryear. This always happens to me. *shrug* Anyway, hope 2009 is a better year for everyone.

What's my celebration to welcome the year of 2009? I went out with my colleagues after work yesterday (worked for half day only) and had pizza for lunch. We actually talked for about 5 hours, including eating time! It was great as we had an enjoyable time talking and laughing our hearts out. We were pratically talking about everything under the sun. It was also my first time after God knows how may years that I had Mc Donald's Sundae cone! No joke. LOL.

Today, I went to catch a movie which I had longed to see since last year - Ip Man. To my shame, I called it I-P Man but it's actually "Yip Man" =p Well, blame it all on my technical background (easy way out huh? hehehe).

Starred by Donnie Yen, this kung fu flick is definitely a good movie to start off the year 2009. Ip Man discusses the spirit of Wing Chun martial art, humanity, morality and friendship. Apart from sleekly choreographed kicks and punches, the script writer and director introduced humour into the movie, which added more flavour to the one-hour-forty-minutes long movie.

There are some scenes, which typically exaggerate the fact that one man could defeat a crowd of more than ten men at one time. I am not doubting the strength of Wing Chun but it doesn't seem too logical why would a group of ten (or more) attacks a single person one at a time instead of all ten (or more) attacking at once. Anyway, it's common to find the above mentioned in almost every action movies.

Donnie Yen protrayal of a humble, well-mannered, righteous and a truly gentleman has me admiring him even more (I have always liked his movies). Umm,..yeah. I am getting the character and the actor mixed up all together but who cares?! hehehe. People like him is scarcely found in the universe these days. Plus, who would not fall head over heels for him if you see him in action.

Credit should also be given to Wilson Yip (director) for his splendid job in capturing the war scenes. They are very realistic and it's indeed very heart-breaking to see how war destroys a country and its people.

All in all, I enjoyed the movie very much and if you are a fan of martial arts, don't miss this ;)

Merry Merry Christmas!!

Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas. I am no Santa Clause but just want to wish all of you a very merry christmas. May this lovely season brings you joy and best of luck. Hope you did have a wonderful celebration. I did ;)

P/S: Graphic courtesy from glitter graphics

Dining at Tomoe

It's been a while since my last post. I have been busy with work and almost suffocate. However, did steal some time to read some comments on my posts and it did put a smile to my exhausted looking face. Thanks girls, for making my day.

As I will be travelling to Johor to conduct training tomorrow, my mom decided to celebrate "Dong Jie" (a festive celebrated by Chinese about 3 days prior to Christmas and it's said to be more important than Chinese New Year) two days earlier. We decided to go to Tomoe because this Japanese restaurant has earned many compliments and it's near to my house.

After coming back from work, was hurried to go out for dinner at Tomoe. It's raining cats and dogs when I reached home.

Tomoe was cozy and a little white Christmas tree was found in the quaint restaurant. While waiting for the food to be served, I walked around the restaurant to snap some photos. Pardon me for the poor quality as they are taken by my camera phone. Didn't get to grab my camera when I was dashing out from the house.

Interior design of Tomoe

Little White Christmas tree

Cute ornament found on the Christmas tree.
Mr X'mas

Found this deco when I was wandering around.

Oh yeah, here comes the most interesing moment : arrival of food! Please prepare your napkin. Time to salivate! LOL

Yum! Miso soup - one of my favourite Japanese foodKaisen Don (MYR 36). I enjoyed this dish very much. The seafood were fresh and I begin to like the texture of raw fish. Succulent and tender. This is a dish that I would recommend to those who like raw fish and vinegar rice.Ebiten (MYR 15) Oops, you must have noticed that I had been trying real hard to hide the gaps filling the plate by taking the photo from different angles. Mission failed =p Yeah, I forgotten to take a picture before others helped themselves with the delicious prawn roll. Richly coated with fish roe and fine in texture, this dish is worth trying. Ebi Tempura (MYR22). My mom could not resist this dish when she saw the lady on the next table ordered this. My mom was generous in offering compliments after taking the first bite. I could not agree more with her. The batter which coated the prawns were crunchy and fluffy. The chef did an excellent job in ensuring the prawns were not overcooked. In fact, the prawns were very tender.

Soft Shell Crab Salad (MYR 26). Sourish,slightly sweet and fragrant, is how I exactly like a salad dressing. I couldn't really make out what were the ingredients but all I can say is the salad was superb.

The bill came up to MYR170.20 and yeah, it's a little pricey. Strangely, I didn't feel the pinch although I would, usually. Probably, I felt I deserved a luxurious meal after all the hard work put in to the current project my team and I are working on. Also, my December salary plus contractual bonus was in already since beginning of the week. It's the time to celebrate though the amount is nothing particularly to be happy about! I would be spending most of my time at work for the next couple of weeks. So, here's my chance to treat myself well ;p

Note from Petite Lass

Another year is passing me by. Looking back at the year of 2008, it is a long journey for me and I have grown up from various experiences. Some time this year, I went through an emotional turmoil. Nothing traumatic, though. Like others, I was searching for something in my life. I felt there was nothing I can be proud of in terms of career or life achievement.

Perhaps luck has found the way to me and there's a turning point which led me to an important project and thus, offering me the opportunity to fly to places I had never thought I would be able to go at my age. Though confronted with hectic and crazy datelines, I learnt a lot and got to know more people from all walk of life. It's an exposure which is valueable to me. Apart from luck, thanks to those who have helped me in every way.

2008 marked the birth of my very own blog. It's been in the back of my mind for a long time but laziness resulted in procrastination. When I first started out, there's zero traffic and I never revealed the URL to my friends. The idea of being "naked" to those around me wasn't appealing. It's more comfortable to have strangers reading my blog. However, as time goes by, I wanted to share some experiences and stories with my friends. Hence, I started to tell my friends I have a blog. Though the traffic is nothing compared to those who have more than a thousand hit per day, I am glad that it does have visitors even if there's only a reader. Thanks to all for your support. Your visit does make a difference and it's a form of encouragement for me to continue to blog.

X'mas Decoration at Sunway Pyramid

Last weekend, I received a short text from a coursemate who I have not heard from for a long time. He said he will be in town on Monday and would like to meet up. Ah, perfect. I wanted a break from work.

We decided to meet at Sunway Pyramid. I was glad that we still had so much to share after not seeing each other for 3 years.

While waiting for him and WS, my sis and I took the opportunity to camwhore. It's simply irresistable with all the X'mas decoration around us.

This santa clause is CUTE!!

Owing to commercialised celebration, we have all kinds of candies, cakes and festive cookies - Snowy Gingerbread Man, Chocolate Boots, Chocolate Santa Claus. Well, you get the picture. If you don't, don't worry. I have some pictures to give you an idea.

My sis said this Santa Claus looks scary. LOL. Miniature version of Santa Claus
Traditional X'mas tree
Heneiken X'mas tree!

Falling In Love With Drop Dead Gorgeous Vampire

Romance between an immortal and mortal under the twilight seems intriguing and mysterious. It only happens in movies and we could only imagine how it's like to be in this kind of unusual relationship. Things get more complicated when one is the predator of the other.

If you have been to the cinema lately, you should have guessed I am referring to Twilight. Written by Stephenie Meyer, it's adapted by Melissa Rosenberg to screenplay and directed by Catherine Hardwicke. After looking through all the available movies on screen, Twilight seems to be the only available movie that's interesting. Starring Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, the movie is about a romance between a junior high school student Isabella (or known as Bella) Swan and a vampire Edward Cullen.

Robert Pattinson may seem familiar to some of you. Well, he acted in Harry Potter as Cedric Diggory. When I read a review about Twilight, the reviewer gave credit to Pattinson's good look. I didn't agree as soon as I saw the movie's poster and I didn't change my mind on that even when he made his appearance in the first scene. Perhaps his squarish jaw and his utterly pale skin (not to mention his ruby red lips) wasn't exactly that appealing to me. I thought they were such an odd combination. It was about after an hour only did I find Pattinson attractive. His eyes were arresting and hypnotic.

Kristen Stewart did an excellent job in protraying the character Isabella Swan. Although shy and quiet, she caught the attention of her new schoolmates, who then immediately became her close friends. She also managed to attract a few boy's attention but she was only attracted to Edward, who was in her Biology class. Adopted by Dr. Cullen, he lived with the Cullen's in the middle of the woods, far away from town. Everyone thought that the Cullen clan was weird and distant. They only mingled among themselves. [Gosh, I love Kristen's legs. They were long and slender. Wish I have them!]

The dialogues between the characters were well scripted. Intelligent, witty and romantic. Exactly the way I like them. Unlike many other two-hour movies, Twilight has good character and story development. However, you may have already noticed that a scene was obviously being censored and that was a spoiler. Anyway, I am sure you would know the sources to obtain the uncensored version ;p

Thanks to the television series Angel, I was under the impression that vampires will be burnt when exposed to sun. In Rosenberg's protrayal, the skin of the vampires would sparkle like diamonds when exposed to sun and hence, leading others to notice they are different from other mortals.

Apart from romance, Hardwicke did an excellent job in enticing her audiences with suspense for the remaining 30-45 minutes of the runtime. I was holding to my seat and breath until the suspense fell flat. I am expecting a sequel to Twilight because the ending suggested so. You will get what I mean when you see the movie.

I thought the ending was romantic and Stewart looked just as gorgeous in the blue dress. Pattinson and Stewart is a good match and the chemistry between the two actually made the movie a success, though credits should be given to other supporting actors as well.

Twilight is an entertaining romance and thriller flick. I would certainly recommend this movie to all movie-goers. Perhaps after seeing this movie, you may start to appreciate the relationship with your significant half.

Photos from Charlotte and Japan

There's always a split second of hesitation between turning on my personal laptop and company's laptop. Due to guilt, I would usually opt the latter. I decided to give myself a break tonight. As though trying to make myself feel better, I told my sister I wanted to blog more than work and my sister assured me that I need a break.

After some reasoning, here I am! Well, I have abandoned my blog for more than a week. My last post was a day after being entertained by dancing and singing chipmunks. LOL.

Sharing with you are the photos taken from Charlotte and Tokyo (Narita Airport). I did not take many photos in this trip. Just enough to have something memorable that I have set foot at Japan, although for merely 2 hours.

My last dinner at Ruby Tuesday, Charlotte

After dinner, we went to Walmart for shopping. It's really huge and if it's not of the time, I suppose I might spend half day in the mart.

The Origami Musuem Shop at Narita Airport

Beautiful,eh?

My colleague and I