SATC 2!

Gasp! I love the white dress that SJP wears in the trailer. I dunno when I'll be able to fit into something like that again.... well fit into it and look as good as she does in my own right... hurmmm.....

But enough about me, the 2nd movie does look exciting! I love Empire State of Mind and that song by Alicia Keys totally depicts New York - love! love! love! Love the extravagance of the outfits they are wearing when they are Abu Dhabi and can't wait to see more of it, espc Samantha interpreting Cleopatra fashion for the 21st century. *gasp* And Aidan.... he looks yum... and don't you love how SJP can show so much emotion in her puppy dog eyes. She's so different when she's with Big than when she's with Aidan.

Anyways, although the first movie was a little bit of a disappointment, it was disjointed and the dear 4 ladies are getting a little bit over the hill - they are not as vibrant as they used to be in the tv series, nevertheless, it's good to see them altogether again. So I look forward to see how their lives develop, with SJP and Mr Big tackling the possible baby issue and Charlotte moving along with motherhood - now mom to her adopted and own kid, etcc....

Can't wait!

Date Night

Sister scored some free GSC tickets again and she wasn't going to use it, so guess who gets to benefit from them? Her favourite sister and brother in law of course. :) hehehe....

Went to redeem the movie tickets for Date Night - starring Steve Carrell (from The Office, US version) and Tina Fey (of SNL fame, and of course, for her role in 30 Rock). These two are our current favourite comedians. The husband, of course, loves Steve Carrell for his role as eccentric, crazy manager boss, whom no one listens to, in The Office, and also all the roles he's played in other recent movies. And Tina Fey, who could ever forget her rendition of Sarah Pallin in Saturday Night Live!

So you put these two together and it should be a recipe for a successful comedic movie.

Surprisingly, when husband went to redeem tickets just the night before scheduled showtime, he said not many tickets had been sold. And when we went to take our seats before the movie yesterday night, sure enough, the cinema was rather empty. Although, the last row of seats we were sitting at slowly filled up closer to the movie start time.

It's quite a simple story line, ordinary (boring) husband and wife couple with two kids living in the 'burbs wanted to spice up one night of their lives with a nice paktor dinner out to a fancy restaurant in the city. They end up getting entangled in a web of mystery and getting chased down by mobs after they decidedly took a reservation for a no-show couple at the restaurant.

The 'normal, ordinary' part of the story may ring true for a lot of married couples, and one that husband and I hope not to have later on when kids come. Getting woken up by the kids at 5am! OMG! Getting stuck in a rut of having an ordinary date night once a week... hehehe.. hasn't come to that point yet... so *fingers crossed*...

So, anyways, our movie ended at about 9.15pm, came home at 9.30am, showered and got into bed by about 10.30pm, when we both declared that we were tired and went to sleep shortly after! so much for crossing fingers.....

hahaha....

Oscars Roll Call

With the Oscar's over the last week or so, husband and I have now watched 2 movies that were hot at the Oscar's - they were The Blind Side and The Hurt Locker.

For those of you have been living on an island somewhere but yet managed to get internet connection to find this blog and yet don't know about the Blind Side, it's the movie that Sandra Bullock won her Best Actress Oscar for. And The Hurt Locker won Best Film, yuppps, beating Avatar, the highest ever grossing movie, which surpassed James Cameron's own Titanic.

I liked The Blind Side... didn't know it was based on a true story about Michael Oher who currently plays offensive defense for the Baltimore Ravens. Somehow, there's something about american football movies.. it never fails to inspire and I think I got a headache at the end of the movie having held back my tears for almost a good 2 hours. I can relate the sportmanship and all the emotional stuff that movies like these try to depict (think Any Given Sunday to name another one), having been involved in dragonboat rowing, which in my opinion, is a similarly emotionally engaging sport.

▲ picture of one of the crews I had rowed with.... :) think that was when we 

won the State Finals (location: Penrith, the same site for the rowing events of 

the Sydney Olympics in year 2000)

So if you hadn't watched this, I'd say go and watch it. It was good, nothing like I had imagined... I was expecting a dreary, miserable, tear jerking movie where Sandra Bullock plays a mom who adopts a homeless, orphaned African American boy. Thank goodness it was nothing like that.

▲ picture of the real Michael Oher with his adopted parents

Moving on to The Hurt Locker.... this movie was quite watchable as well. I thought it was going to be another slow movie... not a huge fan of war movies... though, hurm.... I can think of a few that I did think were good - Saving Private Ryan, the one with Meg Ryan and Denzel Washington what was that one called now.... Anyhow, let's just say that war movies are not usually my first genre choice.

Anyways... the movie started off pretty interesting.... it basically follows the daily lives of these few officers who belong to a bomb detonating squad stationed in Iraq. But we started the movie late at night, and halfway through I had to go sleep... not because it wasn't interesting, I was just tired. And I watched the 2nd half of the movie the following day, but was distracted with doing other things... so wasn't paying too much attention. So from the bits that i was paying attention to, I think I'd rate this movie a pass. And well done to Kathryn Bigelow for being the first woman ever to win an Oscar for Best Director!

By the way, just read on the Sydney Morning Herald that Sandra Bullock is having marital troubles with husband who allegedly had an affair with some tattooed woman (who has a tattoo on her forehead and was an aspiring medical officer... ermmm....ya, pretty obvious why her medical career didn't take off). Apparently, Sandy seems to be part of a long line of the Best Actress Oscar curse - Kate Winslet just split from her husband and the others include, Gwyneth Paltrow (from then husband Ben Affleck, though Ben and Jennifer Garner do make a cuter couple - sorry Gwyneth), Hillary Swank from Chad Lowe, Julia Roberts from Benjamin Bratt and also Reese Witherspoon from Ryan Phillipe (and she's looking way hotter after her split!).

▲ Sandy holding her Oscar in a gorgeous gold dress on the left and Sandy

as Leanne Touhy in The Blind Side on the right

Avatar

Went to watch Avatar over the weekend, a late session too, 9.30pm on Sunday night! Totally think it is a superb movie - well done James!

Loved the beautiful untouched jungle world of Pandora;

Loved the beautiful Na'vi people, though not quite sure if this movie was targeted at the children audience, yet they still made sure the characters, especially the female ones slim and 'swayed' when they walked, a little bit feline-like. Aiya, to put it in less words - the females were sexy!

Loved the soundtrack too, especially the accompanying score to the "flying part" in the movie. Am going to check out the score after this... :)

(i think i shall keep this post short - in case i keep dishing out spoilers!)

▲ Jake Sully checking out his twin brother's avatar, which he took over

 because he shares the same genome make up as his twin

▲ Neytiri, my favourite character in the whole movie

(should probably not post too many photos either, cause my captions will probably also include spoilers!)

Anyways, I wasn't so sure about the target audience for this movie, because the first person i talked to about the movie was my little niece, she's about 5 years old, I think. She pulled out her Avatar toys from her bag and started talking excitedly about each character! hehehe was taken a little bit by surprise at her sudden animation!

▲ Jake Sully doll behind the 6 legged horse-like creature doll

that Clarise, my niece, pulled out from her bag

(oh ya - Jake Sully doll lights up when you pull at his tail)

If you haven't watched the movie - this is a DEFINITE must watch before the year end at the cinemas. There's also a 3D option, but am not sure the extent of a headache you may come out with after sitting down with 3D glasses on for close to 3 hours! But if you're one of those who don't get headaches, think the 3D version will definitely transport you even deeper into the beautiful world of Pandora!

Addiction

From dictionary.com:

–noun

the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma.

From wikipedia:

The term "addiction" is used in many contexts to describe an obsession, compulsion, or excessive psychological dependence, such as: drug addiction (e.g. alcoholism, nicotine addiction), problem gambling, crime, money, work addiction, compulsive overeating, computer addiction, video game addiction, pornography addiction, television addiction, etc.
In medical terminology, an addiction is a chronic neurobiologic disorder that has genetic, psychosocial, and environmental dimensions and is characterized by one of the following: the continued use of a substance despite its detrimental effects...

ya... i think i am addicted to Grey's Anatomy.... it definitely is habit forming, despite knowing that it's not good for me... cause it keeps me awake at night.. i can't sleep after a tear jerking episode... as a result, i send weird emails my husband explaining my emotional state at 2am in the morning....

SPOILER ALERT!!

after the first 2 episodes of the new season 6, i told myself, i think i shall not watch Grey's for awhile... maybe until i have better controls of my emotions (dunno when?)... gosh, the start of season 6 was so emotionally wrenching, George dies a horrible but heroic death.... good thing Izzy survives her cancer (for now)....

oh ya - the other bits that kept me glued to Grey's was also attempts at trying to spot the extra pregnancy weight on Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) and Lexie Grey (Chyler Leigh). I think they were pregnant or was Mer still pregnant during filming? is it my imagination or are the cameras just concentrating on headshots of Mer? and they do look like they are rounder at the face and the hips... I haven't checked gossip news on the internet to confirm - anyone? 

so anyhow, I managed to not watch it for a few days, but it got the better of me yesterday night. I had told myself earlier that I was only going to watch House instead of Grey's for now, but I think I am just addicted to seeing all my favourite doctors in action. I told my husband, "aiyo, i'm so curious...." as I turned it on... and as promising as Ep. 3 started off, with the chirpy soundtrack and all, it ended with a paed-cum-plastic surgery case where they had to reattach the arm of a newborn baby born at 32 weeks..... 

:*(

screenshot from George's funeral scene

Bear Grylls, My Hero

Have been wondering what to blog about for a while... Shld I write about the recent trip to KK? Write a review of my polar running computer? Or write a photography review of recent snapping opportunities? All seemed like too much effort... Bah...

Then, turned on the discovery channel and I just have to tell u about Man vs Wild... If u've never watched it, each episode is about how this dude, Mr. Bear Grylls, who is an ex navy or special forces officer or some super well trained fella who knows everything, survives and finds his way out of life threatening environments. His journey always starts with him parachuting into deserts, jungles, mountains and anywhere else where there are threats from wildlife, lack of food, water and shelter. His aim - to get out alive and return to civilisation.

Of all the episodes I've watched, I have seen him battling and skinning snakes, chopping a skunk in half to salvage part of the body that doesn't have the stench, getting stung by bees to harvest honey - all for the sake of food.

And he'll somehow construct instruments for use to cook, scale down mountains, lay traps to catch game a la McGyver style from whatever he has - his parachute, his pants, his parka, skin from carcasses he finds along his way, etc.

One thing that never fails to amaze me though, is when he's really desperate for water and is at the brink of dehydration, he would drink his own urine. YA! He says, only drink when it's fresh, leave it any longer and it's a breeding ground for bacteria. Urine is, after all, 95% water (and wat, 5% of YUCK?!) Picture this - him pouring the urine into his mouth, spilling over to his face, chin, his clothes... *grimace*

Oh ya, he has kept urine in the skin of the snake he's eaten. It would be knotted at both ends, slung over his shoulders, just like a long inflateable balloon.

And after being hydrated, he soldiers on...