GSC sucks

Went to watch Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest last wednesday night at GSC Gurney Plaza... felt like Davy Jones served us the Dead Man's Cheat instead... cos GSC decided to throw out the customer-first mentality and gave us movie-goers the don't-mind-them-losers-turn-off-the-audio-track-when-we-feel-like-it attitude.

IT SO SUCKS... 5 whole minutes of watching the movie in mute mode!!! If I hadn't walked out and pointed it out to the attendants, nothing would have been fixed! Grrr!!!

The funny thing is that when the adverts were on, the audio tracks worked just fine! Stupid...

Mind you, I'm not the first person to have a really bad experience at this so-called high class, professional cineplex... once a friend of mine watched the movie upside down for quite awhile before the technicians realised it!

I remember when I was watching movies at the old-style cinemas, we did not have much problems like this... and the film technician was an old man in his pagoda shirt! I must admit the place was not as decent and clean as the current swanky cineplexes but it managed to give us what we paid for... no stops, no mute mode, nothing... just good plain movies.

And oh, when it says 5.00pm on the ticket the movie actually starts at the stated time, not like the cineplexes where we are subjected to advertisements that lasted up to 30 minutes...

The food that we got was uniquely tied in to the movie-going experience too... kua-chis, kacang putih, burger, packet drinks that came in all sorts of colours, the small cinema tuck-shop... add in the rats, cockroaches, cigarette smoke, dirty floors and equally dirty old man that chose to sit next to girls... those were the days...

One of the most interesting experience you can have in the cinema is to watch one of those mid-night movies that usually was shown on a friday or saturday night. Never seen so many people waiting for the movies to start!

Oh, another one of those unique experiences... trying to squeeze THROUGH the cinema doors as people were trying to get OUT... also the curtains and the smelly toilets located IN the cinema, either at the back or at the front next to the cinema screen...

Sighs... sometimes I wished the old style cinemas are still around... at least they have character.

God still hears

I am amazed how God is so eager to hear from us and answers our prayers... just like how our earthly fathers being eager to bless us with good gifts, except God is so much more eager...

Thank you... Abba, Father...

I still heart Man Utd

Its tough being a Man Utd fan lately... every player of ours seem to want away, at least one is confirmed as going.... and not many good player seems to want to join us... sighs.

Its oklah, through good times and bad times... its easy to love something or someone when things are going fine. Its when times are bad when your faith, love, loyalty and support for that someone or something is really tested.

One month hiatus...

I've not been blogging for almost a month now... and I guess its because so many things was happening... no, not only was the World Cup on but I had a lot of work to be done in the office and much travelling to do because of Swee's wedding... Tired but satisfactory.

You know something, I did not watch that many World Cup matches this time... maybe its because of the time difference... I guess I treasured my sleeping time more than the football. I think through out the whole month of World Cup, I must have watched less than a dozen matches max. Hrm... at least Su Yin is not a World Cup widow huh? :)

Espana Campions?

I managed to catch the last 10 minutes of Spain's match against Ukraine and I must say I came away very, very impressed!

The Spanish team played like champions... they kept possession well and passed the ball around fluidly... they also chased every ball that was lost and when they finished, they finished clinically. The goalkeeper, defenders, midfielders and forwards all worked together like a team and played very, very well. There does not seem to be any weaknesses anywhere... they are THAT good.

The Brazilian, French and English fans must have wished that their players had played like that...

Will the Spanish finally shed their images as perennial underachievers? We shall see... :)

Double O Bond

I've just watched the latest trailer of the next Bond movie, Casino Royale and guess what? it is very impressive and I can't wait to watch this latest installment of the Bond series. This movie brings us back to when James Bond first joined the Double-O ranks.

If the trailer is anything to go by, this new Bond is more hard-edged than his predecessors... which I think is very, very cool. Back to basics, Mr. Bond?

Oh yeah, one more thing... Daniel Craig, the new Bond, bears a striking resemblance to a young Sean Connery! If you don't believe me, just pay attention to the last scene of the trailer.

Rooney and his metatarsal

I am beginning to wonder if Rooney's injuries was over-stated... a smoke screen... hmm...

Updates...

This is bad, only 2 postings in the past month... I'm afraid I don't have much time to blog lately, with Su Yin back in Penang permanently (yay!) and student's coursework to mark (boo!).

Lots of things are happening... Mei Ching and William is back in Penang with my nephew, Isaac. Very cute, with large head! hehe... They will be back for a week or so, then its off to HK for a week before flying back to KL for Daw Swee's wedding.

Su Yin is bz getting her career life started... it was kinda stressful initially cos she din get much offers or replies... but lately it has been better. Offers are coming in but I think she's settled with teaching for now... until March next year when she will try and start her Master's paper again... no grants yet this year.

Willie will be back next week and we'll have a real big reunion in KL. Hopefully everyone can go down this time.

Hopefully I'll post abit more this month... hrm... maybe not, cos World Cup is starting in 2 days time! Woohoo! Samba, boys! :)

Emotions and cooking

I read somewhere that how well your cooking turns out depends alot on your moods. Apparently, if you are in a good mood or particularly if you are in love, your cooking will taste especially nice. However, if you are in a bad mood, the results will come up bad as well.

I found out that this is very true today... bad mood = bad food, and I was cooking for the family somemore. Sighs... :(

What's with the Metatarsal?

It looks like the Metatarsal bones on the feet of English footballers are akin to Achille's famous heel.

David Beckham, Gary Neville, Ashley Cole, Michael Owen, Ledley King and now, Wayne Rooney (twice).

Why is it suddenly so vulnerable?

Too long

2 weeks is a very, very long time for someone who is wanting for his beloved to return home...

24

Lately I have been watching season 5 of 24, a TV series that chronicles the goings on, over a single day, of a counter-terrorist agent, Jack Bauer, and the agency he is working for, Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU). Its a very popular series and I was sucked into it during the 1st season... but then after that, the same thing seems to happen every season. So I lost interest and stopped watching.

Well, I heard that the current season, season 5, has as a consultant, Richard Marchinko... the guy credited with the setting up of SEAL Team 6, the counter-terrorist section of the U.S.Navy's elite special forces, the NAVY SEALS. So, I began to tune in to see if there is any improvement in terms of realism... it was so-so only but I noticed a few things about the TV series:

1. Jack Bauer is always either whispering or shouting, never talking.
2. His favourite phrase seem to be: "we don't have much time" or "we are running out of time"... and oh... "who are you working for?!"
   
3. Jack is one of the most pitiful and unlucky person in the world... all the people around him seems to die... like flies.
   
4. People in 24 also don't eat, go to the toilet or bathe. Phew!
   
5. He's been talking on his mobile phone while driving... bad boy! :)
6. The US of A is a super 'suay' country. Always kena attack. Heh. :)
   

Stupid Maxis

Stupid Maxis! I can't get Su Yin AGAIN! I've been trying to get her the whole night but there's no signal here.

Why do they have to shut down their system again at night?!

STUPID x10!!!!!!!!

I am seriously thinking of switching operators... #@$!*&^!!!!!!

ARRGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sleeping soundly

I just noticed something about my dog Cherry... she's been sleeping on the job lately... :)

Cherry is allowed to wonder in and out of the house without much fuss from us, she's basically part of the family and we enjoy her company but during the nights, my mom would try to leave her outside the house, in the compound... she's a guard dog by definition anyway. There are nights though, where she would sneak into the house to either sleep under the stairs or on the couch in the living room and I noticed that when she does that, she'd be wide awake in the mornings and would happily wait for me at the bottom of the stairs to greet me. However, if she had spent the night in the compound, then she'd be dead to the world, sleeping away under the stairs, and not even an earthquake would wake her!

She is just so cute... :)

Is that it?

Looks like Man Utd's challenge for this season's Premiership title is as good as over. What a silly draw for Sir Alex Ferguson's team... why he replaced Mikael Silvestre with Patrice Evra in the starting line-up baffles me. Sighs... To make things worse, Chelsea beat Bolton 2-0.

That's it, I guess...

Something to frustrate you...

Went to buy a replacement bulb for my table lamp today... brought it home and was about to bring it to my room to change it with my old one when it fell out of the box and onto the floor. Whack! :O

There goes my RM13.90 (it was an energy saving one). :(

Good one this...

When I heard this one, it put a smile on my face:

An epitaph found on the headstone: "Here lies an atheist, all dressed up and nowhere to go." :)

Expecting too much?

I don't really know how to articulate my thoughts right now... its a little jumbled up and I'm feeling a little melancholic at the same time.

I guess I've just expected too much from certain people, not realising the massive gap in between us. Thinking that I could fit in, I tried to leap across the great abyss but now it leaves me feeling rather empty...

Me and my dog

Remember when we where in primary school... one of those essays our teacher would ask us to write would be: me and my pet? Well, here's my submission (albeit a very, very late entry!) of me and my pet - me and my dog, Cherry! :)
When we first got her, she was so small that i could cradle her nicely in my palms... look at her now... she still loves being carried by me :) Is that a smile of contentment on her face or what?!

Cool Rooney

Much has been made about Wayne Rooney and his temperament... that he is a hot-headed lad who cannot keeps his cool. However, based on his recent performances on the field, I believe this young man has managed to control his temperament alot while maintaining the passion for the game he obviously loves so much. Nothing seems to distract him from playing his heart out match after match.

Of course, he still lets his feelings known to a referee when he felt that he was unfairly fouled on but don't all players do that??? Even, the most even tempered players like Ryan Giggs do come up to the referee and give him a piece of his mind if he felt he was hard done by the ref's decision.

Take yesterday's match with Arsenal as an example, there were many times I felt he had good reason to berate the referee but he did not... even when Kolo Toure deliberately handled the ball to deny him the goal with the referee just yards away from the whole incident. All he did was cried out for a handball but did not pursue the matter repeatedly... if it was him 1 year ago, he would have went on and on with the referee.

This time, he decided to let his feet do the talking... making sublime passes after sublime passes... splitting Arsenal's defence time and time again with either his through passes to Van Nistelrooy or Saha, or using his solo runs that seem to ignore the defenders there. Instead of letting his frustrations rule him, he channelled it into the passion that allowed him getting Man Utd into goal-scoring situations over and over again. When he did score, it was a brilliant one-touch-and-shoot shot. Sooo... sweet! :)

Another testament of his much-controlled temperament was during the build up to Man Utd's second goal where he resisted going down when challenged by Senderos in the six-yard box but decided to stay up, look up and put a cut-back that allowed Park Ji Sung to sweep it into the net. If he had wanted to, he could have gone down and would probably have gotten the penalty... Senderos missed the ball completely... but he did not, stayed calm and because of that, gave Man Utd a 2 goal lead.

All this happened while he had the press making allegations that he had accumulated huge gambling debts hanging over him. Again, he showed that he could withstand the pressures of the game and came up trumps and oh, there is another fact that all of us should not forget, the field he was on had the likes of Fabregas and Henry to competing against him. Guess who won the Man of the Match bottle??? :)

If he maintains such form and temperament, and the other members of the England team is galvanised by the very passion that everyone is asking him to curb, the World Cup is theirs for the taking.