My 28th Birthday

It’s my birthday today. In fact, it’s my 28th birthday. Now I’m entering the final year whereby I get to fill-in any forms, in the age column, with a 2-figure number starting with the number 2 hahaha….

But hey, I’m not at all afraid or getting restless due to aging. That’s the female worry indeed.. ok sorry for stereotyping. I am actually quite ok with aging as male species are not that susceptible to that kind or worry.

Now, what did I do today? Some similarity with my 27th birthday, I’m actually enjoying the “alone”ness but somehow refuse to think it’s actually loneliness. Last year, I was in Cheltenham, UK on my birthday. I was in UK for my company training. I thought birthday was supposed to bring me luck but it turned out to be the other way round. The off-training program for that day was actually a horse-racing event in Cheltenham and the naïve me thought that it must be a lucky day for me so I made a decision to bet some, eventhough I was on tight budget that time, having to spend 10 days in Italy backpacking after the training. It turned out to be a disaster. I was spot-on with my pick during the 1st race but unfortunately I didn’t place any bet for the 1st race as I opted to “tunggu dan lihat” (which is a bad strategy indeed). Thinking that my prediction is so accurate, I confidently placed my bet for the subsequent races. BUT the birthday was wrong, indeed very much wrong. In the end, I lost RM100 altogether. I know I know….. it’s not a big amount, like compared to those who donate regularly to Uncle Lim in Genting but aren’t birthday boy supposed to be lucky???? That’s why, the naïve me!

So, what about this year? As of till now, there’s still around 2 hours before it turn to 28th April. I was busy meeting my potential customers the whole day and called it off around 5.30pm. I returned to the hotel and planning to indulge myself a nice sauna in the hotel gym to soak off all the tiredness a few days ago working in some remote jungle logging camp. I went down to the ground level and found that there was a volleyball match going on at the beach. I joined the game after watching for 10 mins. It was a good game and I really did enjoy it. The sunset view was fantastic! I didn’t manage to snap some nice pics of the sunset as I was too busy with the game. I ended the game with 20mins in the sauna before going out for my dinner.

I didn’t talk to any of my friend who wishes me happy birthday though I received some sms and a colleague of mine who sang a funny version of the birthday song when I called back to check on the daily update. How do I feel about that? Hm…. Peaceful, to be frank. Hahaha…. Eventually I think I am used to spending the day quietly. But I never really did have some big birthday party held before. The only one that I remembered was when I was still a child…yeah…..my age is really getting into me as I forgot what age was that!

And now…. What am I doing? Watching AMAZING RACE!!! That’s what I’m doing! Now that the dentist and the nurse couple was eliminated, I was hoping either Fran and Barry or the Hippies will win it, OK… dun tell me who won it! I dun like spoiler.
(Oh no!!!!!!!!!! Fran and Barry were eliminated!!!!!!!! I’m so proud of them!!!)

SO, I’m enjoying my birthday, my 28th birthday. Hm….thinking of that, to end my celebration, I decided to put on my birthday suit tonight hehe……

What's next?

Well... I wonder how it really started but recently it's happening more and more.........
We had the tudung issue ages ago esp when UIAM imposed it mandatorily to all its student it evolve into the police force and our PM endorsed the move.
We had a couple being caught and fined for holding hands in KLCC ages ago too and now it had been agreed to be made into law to prohibit hugging and kissing in public. (I don't even want to question the clear definition of hugging and kissing which will violate the law or rather is it only affecting certain fraction of the whole popluation etc etc........)

Well.......... it really made me wonder.... what's next???

Gubra

Wow............ I was initially kinda reserved about the sequel or so-called one of Sepet and with all the hype around it, I was afraid that it will turned out to be a disappointing one. However, after watching it yesterday................. I was worrying too much as Yasmin got whatever it takes to make a movie that can touch the heart of all Malaysians.

Won't mention much about the story as not wanting to spoil it all for those who haven't watch it yet and I think the synopsis is pretty much available in the media right now but I would like to mention some of the scenes that still linger in my mind:

1. Nam Rom patting the dog in the middle of the road. I'm sure there were certain parties now plotting some serious protest over this.
2. Those playful scenes between Nam Ron the cleric and his wife, and Orked and Arif the first bedroo/bathroom scene before she got a call from Ida Nerina.
3. The butt-showing scene in hospital. Hey, the similar scene in Kung Fu Hustle definitely looked tame here.
4. The joss-stick scene with azan blaring from background interlaced with the scene of Nam Ron's family praying and the church with Alan and her daughter.
5. The conversation in the pick-up between Alan and Orked, "It's like you are falling in love to someone but that someone doesn't love you?" and of course the cheesy song of Sam Hui. For me, the magnitude of impact of that dialogue is on par with the one in Sepet where Kak Yam mentioned something about Orked and Jason's SPM result.
6. The usage of the word BABI instead of the so-called polite one KHINZIR
7. The ultimate killing dialogue is between Harith and Ida in bed. That is SOOOOOO touching and the subsequent one with the fish tank? Hmmmmmm..... Go figure...it's tear-jerking in some subtle way

Sharifah, Juliana, Roziah, Nam Ron, Mas (the character), Adibah, Harith and Ida gave nothing but the best performance. My only reservations are Alan Yun's kaku acting though I'm sure the audience especially the gals will appreciate his half-naked shirtless scenes in the hospital; and Adlin's "Sandiwara Minggu Ini" kinda acting. Adibah's impeccable comedic timing is just spot-on. Why Alan Yun? Maybe the postman sentiment?

OK... comparing to Sepet... it's deeper for me. At least it's not as light and comedic as in Sepet though the early part of Gubra takes on lighter notes in its ambience and storyline.

The cinema is merely 10% filled (I watched it in KK), which is sad. To make it worst, it chopped off the snippets after the closing credit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's a crime and I'm going to complain to the cinema operator. Hey, it's GSC for God sake!!!! Didn't they know?

In a nutshell.......................... GO WATCH GUBRA. Devise your own opinion but please watch it.

Happy Ending

Among all the cast of Friends, my favourite is LISA KUDROW. Her character, Phoebe is the most interesting and less mundane compared to the other two. Her movie choices were always as interesting as she's known to take on challenging ones, not like what her compatriots in Friends did... think Pallbearers, the Monkey-play-basketball flick of Joey, the strings of Scream movies of Monica (by the way, kudos to her since her character remained undead).
Kudrow collaborated with the director of Happy Ending (HE), Don Roos before in the critically-acclaimed The Opposite of Sex (TOoS), which I had searched for so long. So, you can imagine how exciting I am when I saw HE DVDs on sale in Miri!!!!
Laura Dern (see We Don't Live Here Anymore) is also here. The other casts were unknown to me though their faces were familiar. However, I think they are Roos' usual cast. Oh yeah!!!!!!!! Maggie Gyllenhaal is there too. Known for her choice of quirky character, you can expect the type of movie is HE though it's way much tamer than what Todd Solondz will offer to you.
The story is mainly focused on Kudrow's character, Mamie and her stepbrother. The two of them had sex and Mamie was pregnant. She gave up her baby and Mamie and her stepbro stopped mentioning that episode ever in their life after that. Her stepbro turned gay and his story is one of the major story line besides Mamie's story line.
As the film title suggests, it dealt with the existence of Happy Ending. How do you define HE?
Take note of the songs performed throughout the movie and there were 3 songs performed by Gyllenhaal herself. Watch her performing "Just the Way You Are" and you will go...... Nicole and Reese.....you gals are not the only actress that can sing well!!!

Inside Man

A nice and entertaining movie. Messages were everywhere but it's not those on-your-face preaching kinda thing. Casting was superb, with the ever reliable Clive Owen as the calm baddie and of course Jodie Foster. Personally, I haven't watch a lot of Denzel's work (yeah.... I know.... it's a shame) but his performance here is superb and is nothing like what my stereotypical impression in my mind. Not forgetting Christopher Plummer and William Dafoe who were both excellent.
Plot is fast-paced with no moment for you to slow down. In Chinese, we said, no "cold-court".

The most interesting bit : The opening and closing music of course!!!!!!! I watched a lot of Hindi movie during my childhood period but I had never had the temptation to get some boogie like what happened to me last night!!!