Merry Christmas

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

~ my favourite Xmas festive song from the great Ella Fitzgerald

The Hunters : The Charlie's Angel & More....

Charlie & His Angels? Haha....

OK.... was doing some housekeeping and the favourite part is the photos updating session.

This was taken when I was first transferred back to Sabah and the first treasure hunt that I participated. It's a Kiwanis Hunt from KK to Kundasang. Our debut hunt got #9 I think....

But after that, the Angels ditched me and I ended up with Leslie, Teo and Moira whom I knew during that hunt.

Life Is An Neverending Road.....

well....until you reach the end.

7 days

1584km

4 new friends found

3 towns

7 accidents witnessed

5 unexpected sunny days plus 2 predictable year-end gloomy days

numerous thoughts wondered in the mind

some sweet memories made continuous comeback

equally number of sad episodes replayed

what about the coming 2009?

the same expectations, hopes, resolutions or whatever you name it?

the similar routine of happiness ended with disappointment?

the unfulfilled dreams that made you doubtful about yourselves?

i wonder

i really wonder

Friends Who Travel VIII (Previously known as Couch Surfing CS and Hospitality Club HC Friends)

Taken in KK

(L-R) Yui, Andrea, Ben, Kenneth

Mount Kinabalu National Park HQ (SDK-KK) Dec 11, 2008

The mountain conquerer basked in the rain.

Yui from Japan on the last leg of her travel.

Andrea on her adventurous lone travel.

Well...who says Asian gals can't travel alone?

Ben and Kenneth, young lads from Spore on their holiday while in the national service.

Thanks for the companion along the 1.5hrs boring drive.

Simplicity

Is simplicity over-rated?

Or it's in fact boredom masked marketing myth?

The Day The Earth Stood Still (2008)

... is the worst movie I watched this year.

The cast was wasted. Jennifer Connelly was reduced to only "Please...." & "We can change..." which I kinda suspected Obama was sponsoring the movie. Keanu was natural as alien, I mean with his expressionless face and "count"able number of dialogues.

The whole movie feels extremely preachy in a bad way; old tactic and on-your-face lecture. Science fic is getting worse these days.

Give me Wall-E again anytime.

P/S : Watched it in One Borneo GSC and it's not really that bad, I mean One Borneo.

Selamat Hari Raya Aidiladha

Selamat Hari Raya Aidiladha

45th Taiwan Golden Horse Film Award

Finally Golden Horse speaks Taiwanese 闽南语. For quite a long time, Golden Horse is quite an embarassment for Taiwanese as Taiwanese movie (yeah....if there's any) always lose out to the mainland China and HK movie. Well, even Ang Lee's Taiwanese and proud of it, his recent movies are all funded by US or China's production company.

With the recent 海角七号 popularity in Taiwan, the instalment this saw more Taiwanese films gaining attention. It's a good sign and it's very evident from the start that 海角七号 will sweep every possible awards.

Before I talk more about the award show, it did cross my mind about the pride one has on his or her country's movie. I mean now Taiwanese have their 海角七号 and Indonesians have their Laskar Pelangi (read my take on the movie here), when are we Malaysians have ours? OK, I know we have lots of good movies, movies by Yasmin Ahmad, Amir Muhammad, Shuhaimi Baba or U-Wei but what I mean is the movie that managed to reach all Malaysians, at least doing quite well in cinema. I know the movies such as the Senario etc has good box-office value but I am talking about movies that are not typical slapstick.

I haven't watch any of the movies nominated except Warlords 投名状 but seems like there're some noteworthy ones that I should get my hands on.

1. DoDo Cheng MUST stop accepting hosting job that requires her to speak Mandarin, tat's all, fullstop. (She's a professional host but in Cantonese, not in Mandarin)

2. In the future, all award show should hire film or sitcom script writer to write the dialogue for the presenters so the viewers won't be bored to death. Exceptions are people like Eric Tsang, Sandra Ng which brings me to the next point.

3. For acceptance speech or presenters bantering, Taiwanese tend to be heart-warming, HKies tend to be funny and mainland Chinese tend to be more serious.

4. 海角七号 lost the Best Movie and Best Director to Warlords. Hmm.... internet will be filled with lots of dissatisfied voices I guess but in awards show like this, you never gets to satisfy everyone.

5. Sandra's bantering with her husband is the funniest among the presenters.

6. Award show's performances are err.... recycled material. The magic show? I think it's magic show also 44th or 43rd? And the screen with human shadow forming objects was a recycled idea too. Environmental friendly lah kan?

7. Prudence 刘美君's win was really an upset. She's an underdog among the nominees.

8. Can Astro STOP calling it LIVE when in real, it's DELAYED & EDITED telecast?????

Dah Bangun Ke?

It's Christmas time. It's gift and present time too. Get this at any bookstores around the country. Contributors include Ann Lee, Kam Raslan, Kua Kia Soong, Azly Rahman, Azmi Sharom (cool law lecturer), interviews of RPK, Steven Gan, Zaid Ibrahim, Guan Eng and Husam Musa, Martin Vengadesan (Jed....:) haha) and many more.

Burn After Reading (2008)

Burn After Reading

Joel & Ethan Coen

Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, Brad Pitt

This is an example where the big names couldn't save the movie. And the big name director too!! It feels bored to me and in some way, I thought I was watching Woody Allen's movie, only with more cast as Allen tend to stick to just 2 or 3. It's kinda disappointing with the list of cast screaming good acting but at the end, nothing came out of it. It's hilarious at part especially the part where Brad Pitt was murdered haha.... tat's a good timing and funny to me. And he's funnily annoying, never see him in such a part. Malkovich is his usual eccentric self, McDormand is back to her "Fargo" element and Swinton again is her cold bitch look. sayang........

Something Is Brewing in PAS

With removal of Khalid Samad from his post as Deputy Commissioner II of Selangor PAS and the announcement of Hadi Awang on Ketuanan Islam (hm....no coverage on this yet in either MalaysiaKini or MalaysianInsider.... strange huh?)....

So, is this a purging of the professional/progressive in PAS? Something is brewing and I don't enjoy the aroma of it......

Hang Nak "Hang" Laundry Hang Kat Mana Tu???

When the world leaders are busy scratching their heads trying to solve the economic turmoils what is ours doing, you may want to ask right? But again, our "leaders" said that we have no recession and our economy is still strong so, they don't have to do anything lah kan?

But then our PM-in-waiting do not rest on his laurels you know??? He is so sensitive to the plight of our citizens. The proof? From The Star Online

Those living in multilevel residences will no longer be allowed to dry their clothes in the open “where the whole world can see,” effective next year.

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said a guideline should be in place so that developers would be made responsible for preparing a special area or the proper facilities in its properties for drying clothes.

See... how sensitive our PM-in-waiting to our plights? Such a busy time also he pay attention to these kind of teeny-weeny bit of stuff. But then again hor.... I started to wonder maybe we will have a new "national laundry dryer" device created by our inventor groomed to win the Nobel Prize which all property developers have to buy and install in all future property developments. Lah.... like the uniform for the National Service lah... or the Copter deal kan?

Marseille 3 : Calanques

The Calanque, which stretches from the outskirts of Marseille all the way to Cassis, a natural wonder.

Too bad the weather was too dry (it's summer babe....) so hiking was prohibited and will be prosecuted if caught.

There are some villages in the Calanque and the French like to go for vacation in the villages. As you can see from the pic, the roads are narrow and challenges your driving skills.

Guy and Michele : I just love to be with them. Such a loving sweet couple. Young at heart and fun too!!! Thanks Pierre for suggesting this itinerary.

The game of Pétanque, the French version of lawn bowl but with metal ball. Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to play due to the lack of time.

Guy and Michele, you are the greatest host ever!!! It's so much fun to be with you guys and I learned a lot from both of you.

More with Guy & Michele...

coming soon.......

my paradise and haven in Saint Jean en Royans

Marseille 2 : Le Tour de Marseille? Plus Notre Dame de la Garde

After the delicious lunch, Guy had to go back to his work and Michele had planned to bring me around Marseille by CYCLING!!!! Just love the thought of it and I'm very excited with the plan. And of course, thanks to Pierre because I'm riding his bike.

Second largest city in France after Paris and 3rd in terms of metropolitan area after Paris and Lyon Marseille is located in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. Lived up to the Azur... the sea is breathtakingly blue.

It was the end of summer and school holiday hence there's still quite a crowd at the beach area. Michele and me rode along the long coastal line and it's a nice exercise for me as well. The weather is hot but not humid making the ride more tolerable.

Armed with my camera and a bottle of aqua.

The view with the Callanque at the back....

Thanks Michele!!!

Nicely "trimmed" right?

汪洋中的一条船?

I forgot the name of the coastal road. Michele and Guy mentioned it lots of times. Sorry Michele and Guy.

The Belle

The garden next to the beach

Evening time, when Guy's back from work, we went for a drive as they wanted to show me around Marseille.

Where else to start other than the iconic Basillica Notre Dame de la Garde? It's highest natural point in Marseille and the view from the top is stunning.

Don't be mistaken this for the Santorini Greece. It's Marseille!!! Note the gold statue at the top of the structure. It's Mary and child.

The Isles in sight is the Frioul archipelago consists of 4 islands; one of which is called If where the famous Chateau d'If is located, made popular by Leonardo DiCaprio's movie Men in The Iron mask and the famous Dumas novel The Count of Monte Cristo. Michele mentioned that a lot of Chinese tourists take it as the "must-go" destination due to the DiCaprio craze.

Sans the heavily populated structure, it can be mistakenly assumed as Greece. Love the blue color.

Still the Basillica

More Basillica

Abstract anyone?

The Vallon des Auffes off the Corniche I guess....

The Corniche I think.....

The famous Chez FonFon famous for its bouillabaisse; a legendary restaurant in Marseille which needs reservations very very much ahead.

Another view from the bridge of The Port du Vallon des Auffes

Pics from the Calanques followed......

God Help Malaysia

is this a distress call? well, i may laugh at the stupidity of certain quarters reflected in their words and actions but the fact is, it's worrying, given the numbers represented by these quarters or allegedly speaking on behalf of.

***after reading the news on GGMM demanding 2mil in compensation from Chua Soi Lek after Chua rejected Malay Supremacy

Royal Immunities?

The Regent of Negeri Sembilan asking for reinstatement of the royal immunities. But I'm wondering whether he represent ALL the Malay rulers or he's speaking based on his own opinion. Waiting for statement from Raja Nazrin.

Why they should be immuned? Should I ask this question? Or put it bluntly... do I have the right to ask why they should be immuned?

How You Read This???

Taking cue from Niamah's blog (Patrick Teoh's blog).... I made comments below based on the selective headlines of Malaysiakini. The thing is tat I was so lazy yet so disgusted with everything.

1. For the whole 50 minutes of his first press conference today, political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda maintained repeatedly that the Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and his wife were not involved in the Altantuya Shaariibuu murder case.
- Either Abdul Razak is with Altantuya 24 hours a-day or he's 24-hours tagging with Najib or Rosmah, if not how the hell he's so sure about this. I think a small kid also know this.

2. Wanita Umno deputy chief Shahrizat Abdul Jalil announces that she will contest against incumbent Rafidah Aziz in next year's party polls.
- Finally. Secretly I hope Kak Pa will not be contested and Shahrizat lost the race to her supposed challenger Kamilah.

3. Permit conditions for the Nov 16 candlelight vigil in Petaling Jaya stipulated that candles cannot be lit and there should be no anti-ISA paraphernalia among the protestors who were present.
- Wow..... Do they understand the whole thing? Police really are the wise one. They lay out the food on the plate but tied both your hands and didn't give any eating utensils.

4. There are many Sabahans without ICs and therefore no legal status, but the National Registration Department is now issuing new documents to those of suspect nationality.
- Now they blatantly legalised all the Project IC participants is it? Gosh, this is the greatest hoax of all. And they do it in front of your eyes!!!!!

5. The opposition has trained its guns on former Pempena head Chor Chee Heung over the millions lost by the the state-owned company under the Tourism Ministry.
- Whoever it was... just reveal everything! And how about the PKFZ thingy under Ling Liong Sik? How's that going on Ah Tee Keat?

6. The Bollywood star is too busy to attend the award ceremony which was to take place on Nov 29, says a state official.
- The Star online has a better written title : Shah Rukh Khan't come

Less hectic huh do like this? I know... I know... it's not authentic. Next time.

Mana Tu? Tenom? Kat Mana?

Well... who knows where's Tenom? Well, for many Sabahans, Tenom is synonymously associated with the famous Tenom Coffee, the local style and also the Agriculture Park as one of its tourist attraction. Having said that, not many been to Tenom.

However, it recently made the headlines as the Parliamentary Seat that used the most allocation for the festive season such as open house and other celebrations in 2007 alone. It used up to RM988436.00 for a total of 58 functions averaging RM17042 each. And on the top 10, Putatan (86), Tawau (66), Silam (40)and Sepanggar (54) also made the list with about RM900,000.00 each as well but with more numbers of functions.

Just take Tenom for example. According to Wikipedia, the population in Tenom in 2006 is 46,200. Wow..... Tenom people really had a jolly good time. I wonder whether any of the press go to Tenom and ask how many celebrations they KNOW and WENT in 2007. It's good to note that Tenom is about 4-5 hours driving from KK deep in the rural Sabah. There's a Chinese saying literally means... "Mountain Is High, King Is Far"

See the response of some of the MPs of the respective area here :

Datuk Dr Chua Soon Bui (SAPP – Tawau) has clarified that she was not the MP last year. It was Shim Paw Fatt.
Datuk Dr Marcus Makin Mojigoh (BN – Putatan) denied spending that much: “I am not aware of the allocation.”

So, what do you expect???? Well, wait for another episode with Azalina on the Pempena probe.... In a way, Azalina didn't yell out the response by Dr. Chua above but it's interesting to see the response of the ex-Tourism Miniter the so-called Tengku Adnan..... but hey, he's kinda low-profile lately kan? Thought the last I saw him in the news is when he sat smiling next to the Ahmad-pendatang-fame during his press conference. Answer lah Tengky Adnan.... pity Azalina has to answer your doings and at the same time got questioned on her own previous Sports and Youth Minister too.......

IT, BT now ET???

Well, move aside IT and BT. Now it's the time for ET. Not Spielberg's ET but Energy Technology.....

And how are we doing in Malaysia? Don't even mention ET, just look at our Information Technology and Bio-Technology.....

Malaysia Boleh!!!! Speaking of which I think we are good at IT and BT; just that our IT is Ignorance Technology (we don't face recession.... our economy still growing.......) and our BT is Boleh Technology (everything boleh.....)

Be Scared..... Be VERY Scared but Don't Worry Cox We're In Malaysia.....

DSB HK cut 900 - Hong Kong and Singapore
HSBC to cut additional 600 - worldwide
Pepsi Cola - 3,300 - worldwide
Sun Microsystems 5,000 - 6,000
And CITIBANK cut 52000

U might said aiyah.... that one in America mah.....

In today NST....

1. CIMB Aviva offers VSS (wow..... VSS already!!!!!!!!)
2. MK Land to unveil turnaround plan on Nov 28 (turnaround plan to return to profitability? what a polite word for employee lay-off/cut???)

So, now.... are we still insulated from the recession? Deputy Minister Kong Cha Ha (MCA) said it's slowdown but not recession. Hmm.....

What Is This????? Coming from a Cabinet Minister and so-called constitution expert???????????

I don't hate old people but with people like TDM and this one.......

Umno Supreme Council member Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim has called for the strengthening of Malay politics through numbers so that other races will stop denigrating and ridiculing Malays. ~ BERNAMA

.......really tops it off. Where's the sedition act when we need it? Isn't this some threat masked in the name of Ketuanan Melayu?

Gosh... I really fed up with all this thing. Every time UMNO having elections, these are all the sandiwara being played to the gallery. Tonnes and tonnes of them and these are all the buggers who's running our country. With oil and palm oil price coming down globally, which our country solely depend on, the economy should be the top priority but yeah... party election more important.

How To Choose???

I look at the list of the nominees in the UMNO Deputy President post in its coming election.

Muhyiddin Yassin

Mohd Ali Rustam

Muhammad Muhammad Taib

Now our nation's No. 2 has to be chosen from the three above?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I suddenly thought of somethings else.

What if I have to choose between......................................

如花** in 吃神 (God of Cookery or sik sen) OR

如花** in 大内密探零零发 (Forbidden City Cop or dai noi met tam ling ling fat) OR

如花** in 唐伯虎点秋香 (Flirting Scholar or tong bak fu dim chao hiong)

如花 (Flower-like or yu fa) ** is the famous character that appears in quite a number of 周星驰 (Stephen Chow)'s movie.

SO HOW TO CHOOSE???

P/S : This is the 777th post of the blog.