希望

一瞬间的变幻
把我们拆散
你眼中的泪光
闪烁着茫然

当简单的期盼
都变成荒唐
你心中的恐慌
已无法衡量

把所有的悲伤 都化成力量
让生命等到每个天亮

当所有的祝福 集成一曙光
在黑暗中带来希望

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Finally it is showing on screens world wide. 20 years after the last instalment, but most can say the fifth one with Ford as the main character probably won't be possible. Rumours was saying that the transformer kid might take up the main role in the next sequel.

IJ movies are famous for its impressive action sequences/stunts and probably its witty dialogues. Not that these wasn't found in this movie but somehow it was trying to hard,some dialogues sounded like best line from the worst. Action sequence was draggy without elevating to the next level, like hoping it to end.

And also how it carry you through the whole movie like sitting tight in a roller coaster ride. Somehow, this one was draggy here and there. I was trying to keep myself awake as well, not sure if it was because quite tired these few days.

This time, IJ came up against the Soviet Union agents, led by Cate Blanchett as Irina Spalko.

It was the Ark of the Convenant first, then Sankara Stone, then the Holy Grail ... the latest is the Crystal Skull.

The one who return it to the Temple of Akator will be given supreme psychic power. With so many SV agents, IJ team up with his old flame from the first movie and his son, the transformer kid.

Finally, it all ended up in the temple where as usual it must confirm, surely, definitely, die die, no doubt, you bet that it will caved in. An UFO appear from the caved in temple, thought I was watching the new X-file movie.

Anyway, not the best of the series. 7/10

五月十九日, 星期一

The long weekend ending in another couple of hours ... so fast. Like nothing much was done, the next holiday will be in Aug, National Day. Had alot of good food though.

Saturday morning, I went to dim sum buffet at Tung Lok@ECP with my parents and bro. Even though we reached at the starting time of the buffet, there were already a couple of tables with people. It was ala carte so early means lesser waiting time. You have 20 of dim sum items, 7 or 8 small dishes and 4 desserts to choose from ... eat till you surrender.

Some items worth mentions were the 烧卖, 腐皮卷, 迷你蛋挞, 糯米鸡, 椒盐苏东, 酸甜鱼片, 干炒叉烧河, etc. We took our time and finished around 2 pm. It came to about $25 per pax.

That was consider brunch and was prepare to skip dinner but ..... eventually had mine at BJ@Toa Payoh. Another 极乐 meal. Rosemary lambchops, whoopass cheese fries, thai chicken and beef burgers. Simply too hard to resist even though I wasn't that hungry.

Sunday started with lunch at CV. The 鸡扒河分 and 炸云吞 still so good. The 河分 sauce savoury and with the chunks of crispy 鸡扒 ...... Yummy ! The 炸云吞 here were so crisp that you probably can hear it from the bus interchange, with generous meat fillings in it too. Simply so good !

Then came 8 hours of mahjong ... no luck this time round. It was like all force against you. Simply too crappy ... I stopped the game before "The Apprentice" ended. It was dinner/supper time and decided on 重庆麻辣火锅 opposite Shaw Tower. They open till 5 am. Now it cost $18 per pax, up from the $15 the last time we were there. We split around 2 am and was time to get a shower as we were sticky and sweaty from the meal.

Today managed to finish rest of LOST S4, eagerly waiting for S5. And I started on 原来爱上贼, just finished epi 7. Managed to jog today ... hope that I can continue that.

Work again tomorrow :(

Chocolate

This wasn't dessert after dinner. The thailand movie starring the female "Ong Bak". Quite a while never see such 拳拳到肉 movie. Zin, a female triad member fell in love with a rival Jap triad member. They try to be together but to no avail, as the thai triad boss buay song. So the jap guy return to Jit Poon, she also left the triad pregnant with his baby.

It seems peaceful till she found out the baby wasn't normal, will be abit "SaMe". And amid this, there was letter communication with the Jit Poon guy, this news got to the triad boss. Buay song again, they went to look for her. Cutting off her toe as a punishment !

Zin left with her daughter, Zen, try to be far away from the triad. Zen was autistic but extraordinary in her ways.

She seems to learn martial art moves fast. And also able to catch any object with her bard hands. With the help of the neighbour, some guy, they earn some $$ through their 江湖卖艺.

But it was not enough as Zen's lao bu got cancer, needs more $$.


They found a booklet where it records people who owns Zin $$. So they started their kung-fu fighting spree to get back the money. From ice factory, warehouse, dirty wet market ... Zen fight her way through. The market scene where Zen went to look for the butcher for $$. It was dirty and showdown with sweaty men weaving cleavers, quite good.

This pissed off the triad boss in which in the end ... Final showdown as usual.

Story was typical but the fighting was good. Most are unarmed combat with good choreograph moves. The fights are as good as it can get. 7/10

Friday Dinner@ManHill Restaurant

This turns out to be a very good alternate option because the bistro one zero three didn't have any free tables when we walked in. It was fully reserved as well when we call in during afternoon. Anyway, this manhill restaurant looked like any typical chinese tse char stall. It is along Pasir Panjang Road, after labrodor park, coming from Sentosa.

The bright neon sign was quite hard to miss. Their specialities are claypot so one section of the menu was claypot dishes. We decided on claypot chicken, claypot fishhead and a vege dish. But the so called famous fishhead ran out, so we settle for the 排骨王.

Didn't take any pictures ... not in the mood :(

But the chicken was good. The name for it was 远近驰名 砂煲云英鸡 !!! Sounds like something you need to eat before some pugilistic marital art meet aka 武林大会. It was actually kinda of roasted chicken in thick broth with several other ingredients. Chicken was tender and the skin savoury. The broth was light yellow and thick, just goes so well with rice.

The 排骨王 turns out to be real good too. Very tender, slight crisp and the sauce on it ..... 好吃 !
It was over in 1/2 an hour. Then we were just resting after meal, then the table behind us order another claypot dish, the fragrance when the cover was open ... 太香了 !!!! It was actually 砂煲猪肝.

This definitely will be in our choices for dinner locations ! :)

Saturday Dinner@Tomton Liang Court

Found this out of the blue when we walked to Liang Court/Clark Quay. Looks good and quite packed so decided to try it. Something probably which most people would have know already, actually was looking for the shop that sells cheese ramen. Checked on the web, it was called Tampopo, seemingly also under the Tomton chain.

As LC is under renovation, didn't really spend any more effort to try looking for it. Since we already tried the black pig tonkatsu at Tomton@Central, the original black pig ramen looks good. A sashimi mixed platter was the starter, huge chunks of salmon, squid, tuna and other 2 kinds of fish. They were damn good and really fresh.

The ramen came at the speed of the big mac. Pork bone soup, ramen, cabbage and few slices of black big. The pig slices are mixture of lean and fat meat, thin so that it seemingly melts in your mouth. The soup was really savoury and I like it better than the soup base in Ajisen.


Definitely worth coming back. And try out the Tampopo as well, website saying it relocating to level 1 in Apr 08, probably already there, just that we didn't really look.

This meal was courtesy of Man United whom beat West Ham 4-1, just enough for me to win my bet :)

Iron Man

At 125 mins but every scene kept me on my toes. Human can't fly but if you are rich and smart enough, you can.

Tony Stark by Robert Downey Jnr is billionaire industrialist who make weapons that kept America strong.

But he was kidnapped by some T which was actually a plot setup by Obadiah, the seem to be second-in-command in Stark Industries.

He was injured and saved by another T who fit in a pacemaker into his body that kept his heart running. The Ts ordered Stark to make the Jericho missles for them. But Tony had other plans, out of no where, he started to build a suit that was their ticket out of there. And miraculously, he managed to improvise on a pacemaker that can drive the suit and give it power/energy.

He succeeded of course, bashing his way out. After returning home, he realised that building weapons was not the way anymore, as it kills too many innocents people. He told the press that the weapons divisons will be shut down and that pissed off Obadiah.

Tony was told to lie low and then put all efforts into making the real Iron Man outfit. In addition, a new more powerful pacemaker that provides more energy.

Must mention, his pretty assistant, Pepper Potts by Gwyneth Paltrow changed the pacer for him. She then put the original pacemaker into a box and gave him as a present.

Though the so obvious that she liked him elements wasn't quite exploited in this movie, probably in the next few ones to come.

News got out that some mysterious flying object crashed a F-22 and on the other hand, the Ts managed to recover the pieces of the original Iron Man suit which crashed landed in some desserts. The scene which 2 T were trying to puzzle match the pieces back was quite KT. Anyway, they manage to so call pieced them back and showed it to Obadiah. He got the suit back and got it re-made into something huge, the Iron Monger.

But slightly one problem, his team couldn't come up with the power requirements for the suit. So he had to steal it from Tony and he succeeded, sneaking up on him with some seems like ultra high frequency device that no human can withstand. Tony was immobilized and Obadiah just took out the pacemaker and walked away.

Heng, the present still there. With the original pacemaker, Tony slipped into his Iron Man suit and went after Obadiah for the final showdown. 7/10

Friday Dinner@Khansama Tandoori

Long weekend for me but back pain acting up again. Seems to be like what the doc says, rest and muscle relaxant are the only way to go unless the pattern or symptons of pain changes. Anyway, caught Iron Man on friday night, another Marvel superhero movie. Before I go into that, if anyone likes North Indian food, this one we went to was really good.

Tucked away at Science Park 1, Science Hub, Level 2. Only 2 tables was seated when we arrived about 7:30 pm. The decor and ambience definitely indian. To warn, the smell also authentic. The menu selection was huge but prices are reasonable. Arachaat, tandoori chicken, tandoori tiger prawns, fish curry, butter chicken, butter naan, cheese naan and garlic naan were on the cards.

Araachaat came in a small bowl filled with pineapples, beans and some cripsy pieces, all drenched in colourful sauce of extreme taste. It will wake you up ! The tandoori chicken was tender but it was another tandoori that steal the show. The tandoori tiger prawns, 12 prawns out of their shells which was seasoned with all the tandoori spices they could find in Singapore. It was bright orange-red and the taste not for the norm, extremely savoury and tandoori !!!

Then came the naans, fish curry and butter chicken. Naans are good especially the cheese one, it was so cheesy that one would thought they have finished up Italy's whole year cheese production. The butter and garlic naan are more subtle but with a crisp as you bite through. And it goes so well with the fish curry and butter chicken gravies ........ :)

Came up to about $25 per pax. Definitely worth coming back for the Naans and Gravies.
www.khansama.net