Archive | 2008

A Round of Mini-Golf and a Cream Tea in Dunster!

Posted October 29, 2008 at 7:28 pm in Photography, Trips & Travel, UK

After A Trip Up The Hill and a Ride on West Somerset Steam Railway the next morning we started off with a solid English Breakfast again, this time we had the full works with Black Pudding!

Unfortunately this was the only food shot I took at my aunt’s place in Minehead…she’s such a superb cook we just wolfed all the food down without thinking of taking pictures of it! It’s such a relaxing place too and alcohol served with every meal (apart from breakfast..). We had a bottle of bubbly every night I think.

Full English Breakfast

Anyway, after that we just walked a little way across town to the mini-golf course at the park (Blenheim Gardens), there was a brass band playing too! The weather wasn’t great, but at least it didn’t rain.

Mini Golf at Blenheim Park Minehead

I came joint first I think, a bit rust at the old putting.

Mini Golf at Blenheim Park Minehead

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Movie Review – Wanted – Better Than Expected!

Posted October 23, 2008 at 3:23 pm in General Nonsense

Wanted

25-year-old Wes was the most disaffected, cube-dwelling drone the planet had ever known. His boss chewed him out hourly, his girlfriend ignored him routinely and his life plodded on interminably. Everyone was certain this disengaged slacker would amount to nothing. There was little else for Wes to do but wile away the days and die in his slow, clock-punching rut. Until he met a woman named Fox.

I actually first knew about this movie when it showed up on a blog I subscribe to, Photoshop Disasters for a freakishly long forearm. Before that I hadn’t really heard of it..but when I saw the trailers and all I thought it looked a bit cheesy, it had a decent cast (Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman) though so it should at least be worth a watch.

I somehow got the impression it was going to be quite poor, it was better than expected, but certainly not great. It reminded me a lot of Fight Club the downtrodden ‘normal’ guy ‘Wesley Gibson’ played by James McAvoy certainly made me think of Edward Norton in Fight Club.

He played the part well though, turning from a normal guy into a badass within a relatively short timespan. In some ways it’s a lot like Matrix too, some may call it the poor mans Matrix with McAvoy being Neo, Jolie very much being Trinity and Morgan Freeman as Morpheus.

James McAvoy in Wanted

Jolie was the hot assassin badass bitch that kicked ass all over the place whilst looking flawless, you do of course have to suspend all belief to enjoy this movie..Her role reminded me a bit of how she played in Mr and Mrs Smith.

And of course the striking resemblance to the hot female mentor in Matrix..Trinity.

Angelina Jolie in Wanted

All in all the action was good, it was a pretty entertaining film. It scores a high 7.1 on IMDB but honestly I didn’t think it was that good. It’s not exactly original or difficult to work out the ‘twist’…it’s just a fun popcorn movie.

The special effects are nice, there are some cool moments, the characters play their parts suitably well and there is a couple of cool lines. It has some dark humour and some good action moments, it could have been better, but I did expect it to be much much worse.

I’d give it a bullet curving 6/10.

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A Trip Up The Hill and a Ride on West Somerset Steam Railway

Posted October 22, 2008 at 3:10 pm in Photography, Trips & Travel, UK

After our trip down to Minehead and a visit to RNLI we headed up the hill where I took the glorious sunset pictures in 2006.

Unfortunately this time the weather had deteriorated by the time we reached Minehead so it was more grey skies than blue and rather chilly.

View from the Hill - Minehead

The moors were colourful though with the flowers at the end of the season.

Somerset Moors

We went up with the top down in my aunt’s pimped out Renault Megane Cabriolet! Nice red leather seats, it’s a sweet ride.

Renault Megane Cabriolet
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Movie Review – The Forbidden Kingdom – Weak

Posted October 17, 2008 at 10:58 am in Movies

The Forbidden Kingdom

While hunting down bootleg kung-fu DVDs in a Chinatown pawnshop, Jason makes an extraordinary discovery that sends him hurtling back in time to ancient China. There, Jason is charged with a monumental task: he must free the fabled warrior the Monkey King, who has been imprisoned by the evil Jade Warlord. Jason is joined in his quest by wise kung fu master Lu Yan and a band of misfit warriors including Silent Monk.

There was a lot of talk about this movie before it came out for a number of reasons…firstly it has both Jackie Chan and Jet Li in it…so it should kick ass! Secondly it’s in English (wtf?!) and has a whiteboy as the lead role (doublewtf?!).

Sounds like it could end up as a disaster…I put off watching it for a long time, but recently got round to it and was surprised to see it rating well on IMDB with 7.0!

The story is pretty simple and to be honest will appeal to a LOT of mid 20s to mid 30s white dudes who live in urban areas, those like me who grew up obsessed with martial arts, kung-fu movies (including the b-grade ones), nunchukas and of course Bruce Lee! It’s a sort of western, modern interpretation of Journey to the West.

The opening sequence sets the mood well with pictures of a lot of the old time shaw brothers actors including a few of the b-grade fake Bruce Lees like Bruce Li etc.

Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Michael Angarano in The Forbidden Kingdom

Everyone played their role pretty well, but our white homeboy got good at kung-fu WAY to fast…but then it is a movie. The fights between Jackie Chan and Jet Li were spectacular and worth watching the movie for…well all that was worth watching the movie for really.

Michael Angarano wasn’t quite as annoying as I expected him to be, but was fairly annoying anyway.

It seems this movie is a bit like Crouching Tiger, Asians HATE it, Whiteys love it.

Li Bing Bing was super hot as Ni Chang though, an extra point for that.

Li Bing Bing in The Forbidden Kingdom

The movie had some decent parts, and I tried really hard to harness my white side and enjoy it…but I just couldn’t.

The dialogue was poor, Jackie Chan still can’t really speak English clearly..there was only a couple of redeeming fight scenes and all the old kung-fu references were a bit wasted.

Overall I think it’s worth a watch (barely) just for the couple of good fights, I give it a limp bo staff 5/10.

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A Trip Down to Minehead and The RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution)

Posted October 15, 2008 at 3:04 pm in Photography, Trips & Travel, UK

So after A Trip Up the Malvern Hills in Worcestershire the last dinner we had before heading down to Minehead was a lovely venison burger with potatoe wedges and some mixed vegetables (kinda like ratatouille).

Venison Burger

This is the room I was staying in, can you see me in the mirror 😀

Room and Me!

It used to be my bedroom originally when we first moved into the house, then when I came back after graduating I switched to the back bedroom (which is larger) to allow for my computer, TV and so on. It was good to be back there, coincidentally my Mom has sold the house now and is looking for a new smaller place.

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The Current Economic Climate – Unstable

Posted October 10, 2008 at 2:03 am in Weird/Humour

If you don’t understand why the stock markets are plunging and everything is so screwed up, let me explain.

Once upon a time in a village in India, a man announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10.

The villagers seeing there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest and started catching them. The man bought thousands at $10, but, as the supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their efforts. The man further announced that he would now buy at $20. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again.

Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer rate increased to $25 and the supply of monkeys became so little that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catch it!

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now act as buyer, on his behalf.

In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers: ‘Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at $35 and when he returns from the city, you can sell them back to him for $50.’

The villagers squeezed together their savings and bought all the monkeys.

Then they never saw the man or his assistant again, only monkeys everywhere!

Welcome to the stock market!

Seriously speaking…read these:

Subprime Lending
Negative Equity
Pump and Dump
Microcap Stock Fraud
Securities Fraud

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A Trip Up the Malvern Hills in Worcestershire

Posted October 8, 2008 at 1:06 pm in Photography, Trips & Travel, UK

After a lovely day out and visiting Broadway, we had dinner in Birmingham at my Aunts house.

The next day was a rest day really, eat and laze around the house, catch up on a few e-mails and so on.

Breakfast was a classic Bacon and Egg sandwich on freshly homemade bread!

Bacon and Egg Sandwich

My choice of sauce is HP/brown sauce – always! For dinner we had something nice and healthy too, pan griddled sirloin steak.

Pan Grilled Steak

You get those lovely black lines across it, served with tomatoes, mushrooms and a jacket/backed potatoe.

Steak, Tomatoes, Mushrooms and Jacket Potatoe

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Movie Reviews – The Spiderwick Chronicles – Enjoyable

Posted October 7, 2008 at 4:34 pm in Movies

The Spiderwick Chronicles

From the beloved best-selling series of books comes “The Spiderwick Chronicles,” a fantasy adventure for the child in all of us. Peculiar things start to happen the moment the Grace family (Jared, his twin brother Simon, sister Mallory and their mom) leave New York and move into the secluded old house owned by their great, great uncle Arthur Spiderwick.

I hadn’t actually heard much about this movie but I generally like fantasy flicks so I thought I’d give it a chance, turns out it was a good choice! It does pretty well on IMDB with 6.9 – I hadn’t checked that until after the movie though.

It turns out it’s based on a series of books of the same name – The Spiderwick Chronicles.

It’s basically a fantasy tale of monsters, fairies and all things wonderful, a little like Pan’s Labyrinth but not so dark.

The lead who you might remember as Charlie in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Pantalaimon from The Golden Compass.

Freddie Highmore in The Spiderwick Chronicles

He played the role(s) very well and suited the character perfectly. The plot isn’t hard to follow and the pace is good, the special effects are very well done and all in all it’s a well polished production with a solid performance all around.

Nick Nolte is suitably scary as the baddy Mulgarath with his shape shifting and power over the nasty creatures.

Nick Nolte in The Spiderwick Chronicles

The movie has moments of happiness, sadness, humour and some great dialogue. Especially the arguing between the kids.

It’s definitely worth a watch especially if you are a fan of the fantasty genre.

I give it an Thimbletack 7.5/10.

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We Ate This Updated – Beard Papa – Japanese Cream Puffs

Posted October 7, 2008 at 4:05 am in Food/Eating

This is simply one of my favourite desserts! I’m sure mostly everyone has tried it…it’s a little pricey at RM3.30 but it certainly is a nice treat now and then.

Beard Papa Cream Puff

Read more at:

Beard Papa – Japanese Cream Puffs – 1-Utama Old Wing Jusco

BTW please leave your comments over at We Ate This and not here – Thanks!

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Fidani and The Chocolate Factory

Posted October 6, 2008 at 12:22 am in Food/Eating, Photography

So in September the lovely Eiling invited a bunch of us to head to the Fidani Chocolate factory in Shah Alam where they make premium hand made chocolates under the watchful eye of the skillful chocolate master-chef Amer.

So let’s see…there was – Kimberlycun, Suanie, FA, Ringo, KY, Rach, HornyBaldyNicholas, Grace, Jen, David, Ziling and Yiling (the last two being Eilings sisters!).

Eiling briefed us on what was going to happen and told us a bit about the company and what they did there, basically they make higher end handmade chocolates under the luxury brand Fidani.

Eiling

You can get these chocolates in the duty free chocolates shops at KLIA and various other locations.

Then we were introduced to Chef Amer, a highly trained confectionary chef who masterminds the recipes and construction of the chocolates for Fidani using only the highest quality ingredients from around the world.

Chef Amer

Before he really got started though we were already demolishing this HUGE box of chocolates, chocolate for breakfast – yum!

Fidani Chocolates

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