Wednesday, December 31, 2008

New Year Resolutions

Made any in 2008? Resolved any?

Making any for 2009?

I, for one, had never made one...dun think it'll be any different nxt year. But maybe I should; To read all the books in my long Q line by this day next year (added 2 more when I was at Kinokuniya last week) *crosses fingers*
Nevertheless,


Happy New Year 2009!!

Monday, December 22, 2008

Christmas e-Card



Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!

Friday, December 12, 2008

Christmas is in the air

Peen & SHuey during BBQ
*Takes a deep breath..yes, I can almost smell christmas so naturally the pages are xmas-inspired. Some of the pages are dedicated to my frens..just a personal way of saying Merry Christmas!! Yaya, a lot of faces are missing still..slowly-ler have to go dig up photos :P

After I made the 2nd and 3rd, I find the 1st one a bit cacat-ed d but lazy to redo kekek..maybe will relook later on.

Meanwhile Merry 'advanced' Christmas to all!

(click pic to enlarge)

Shu-Yin & Pat @ Miraku


Note: Kits and elements are thanx to the following, in no particular order
'Another Xmas' by Stephinette
'Skyla' by Stephinette
'Another Xmas' by Droopette
'Another Xmas' by Angelique
'Another Xmas' by pitchouk82
'NuitMagique' addon by Digiscrap.ch
'Cherry Moka 3' by happy-scrap
'Ambience Feutree' by Tinette, patou, Nini-lolo, Gwenn
'HappyBirthdayPartie4' papier by kafrounette, New Life Dreams, Sylvie, Tinette
'Juste-une-etincelle' by Bellisa
'Line' by Skyla
'Flowers Dream' addon by Mycrevette
'Mathias' add by Ninie
'Cherry Moka 2' by Gwenn
'Plaisir d'hiver' by Ninie, Loloden designs, Kalanice, Droopette, Cecile, Ptitesouris, thaliris

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Twilight

Twilight Movie PosterTwilight, the latest craze in almost every part of the world. First the novel, now the movie. It has a romantic-fantasy theme about a teenage girl who falls in love with a vampire, played by Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattison respectively. And that is cool really just that I find the tempo of the film a bit too slow for my liking. Plus we only really see some action action after almost 3 quarters into the show. Not to mentioned the actings are a bit wooden (maybe that is how the characters are potrayed in the books as well). But I think I know why Robert Pattison is suddenly the sexiest guy around. He isn't good looking but glimpses of his mischievious smile throughout the movie can make girls swoon...and of course when his super pale makeup and super red lips are not that apparent. Still, I'll stick to loving a certain vampire slayer and her vampire boyfriend with a soul anytime.

Anyways, I kena scolding by Ee Lyn today because apparently she thinks I don't understand the movie because I have not read the book. She said "you MUST understand the book then u will definitely be OBSESSED over the book and the movie both"..just like how she is. She watched the movie F-O-U-R times already and still loving it. Read and reread the books for countless of times and still wants to read it over again (She's forcing herself to finish her current book so that she can drown herself in Twilight once more). Yes, she is that OBSESSED. She even has the whole Twilight book series (4 books in total) in both paperback and hardcover sets not to mention a movie poster.

Perhaps I should read the books too but she wouldn't lend me hers. They're already nicely wrapped in plastics to preserve the new-ness. And mostly coz she cannot part with them for even one day. Hmmm..so who doesn't mind lending me their copies?


My Rating:

Saturday, December 06, 2008

Dangerous Deceptions by Lynn Kerstan

Dangerous DeceptionsCome to think about it, I'd rarely read any romance novel other than those by Judith McNaught. But I'm glad I picked up this book during one of the book sales in Island Plaza for a mere 10 bucks. The story picks up right at the start and rarely slows down for so much as a breather.

The protagonists of the story are Jarrett, Lord Dering, a family outcast and who lives by his gambling skills, and Kate Falshaw, an actress with a scandalous past. Both of them find themselves working for the secretive Black Phoenix organization that seeks to right wrongs in Regency England. Their mission: to infilrate Paradise, the most exlusive gentlemen's resort, where "whatever you fancy can be had, for a price". Jarrett comes up with a plan in which the two of them will begin a tumultuous public "affair" as a cover for their real mission. And for them to be believed, they must become that which they are pretending to be.

So begins a journey full of exciting, suspenseful even humorous twist and turns, with their real feelings and self discoveries thrown in. Romance wise, Lynn Kerstan certainly did not disappoint but the mission part though rather intriguing may be a bit under developed and ended a bit too simply. Oh well, this is afterall a romance novel not a thriller. Add a plus point too that the story takes place in the 1800s, the Regency period, an era disctinct for its architeture, literature, fashions, and aristocrates :)


My Rating:

The Uninvited by Geling Yan

The Uninvited - Geling YanThe Uninvited centers around Dan Dong, an emigrant from rural China who now lives in Beijing with his wife, Little Plum. Dan Dong was recently laid off as a factory worker and now like many others, is living in an unused part of the factory while surviving on canned food that have passed their expiration dates. To some of us, this is probably unacceptable but to him, it's considerably better than eating tree barks with roasted grasshoppers, which they'd lived on in the past. Anyway it's still pretty miserable so when Dan Dong is mistaken as a reporter while he was looking for a job at a posh hotel, he goes with the flow and is ushered into a press banquet where he enjoys a gourmet meal.

He soon learns that with just a business card saying he is a reporter, he can crash any number of lavish banquets where journalists are wined and dined for listening to presentations by corporations and charities promoting a cause or a product. Better still, the journalists are presented with "a little fee for your troubles" at the end of each banquet - to write favourable reviews. Dan Dong also learns about the word "free-lance" which means he doesn't necessary have to be tied to any particular press outlets yet allows him access to the banquets. And who cares if his articles ever appear or not.

However, it soon dawns that the banquent bug business isn't exactly a bed of roses. Through his newly established 'career', Dan Dong meets a new variety of people, some of whom beg him to listen to their tales of woe and injustice, hoping that he will write about them to help address the wrongs done to them or their families. There are also those who have connections with high places as well as those with money, fame and power. Dan Dong feels everyone wants a piece of him and then he begins to suspect that some one is watching him.

This book depicts the contradictions in today's China, the obvious excess of the cities compared to the oppressed and poverty-strickened rural areas. It's almost bizarre to read about the sumptuous banquets with exotic dishes - minced pigeon breasts with mashed tofu molded into tiny snowballs; a dish made of a thousand crab claw tips; huge sea snails mix with veal and wild mushrooms; peacock meat. There's even a nudity banquet where bodies of naked maidens are covered with abalones, scallops, prawns and other varities of seafood sashimi. And yes, you pick your food off their bodies.

Overall, it's not a bad read plus it's an eye opener to life in modern China. Not that I have not read my fair share of the scandals going on in China in the newspapers though :P


My Rating: