Interesting Pregnancy Tag
Tag! Usually, i am way behind to do tag, but i find this tag is really interesting, here you go Irene, thanks for tagging me. :)
1. WAS YOUR FIRST PREGNANCY PLANNED? Yes
2. WERE YOU MARRIED AT THE TIME? Yes
3. WHAT WERE YOUR REACTIONS? I was happy, I was worried, and a lot mixed feeling, as i am not sure whether i will success, and have a smooth pregnancy or not.
4. WAS ABORTION AN OPTION FOR YOU? Never
5. HOW OLD WERE YOU? I was 33 (super old lei :))
6. HOW DID YOU FIND OUT YOU WERE PREGNANT? Being told by my gynae, because i was go through IVF and i have to wait for two weeks to know the result whether i am successful or not.
7. WHO DID YOU TELL FIRST? My hub & my mum
8. DID YOU WANT TO FIND OUT THE SEX? No, i only pray for i can have two healthy babies. Anyway, i didn't know both sex, my gynae only told me one and the other one he let me guess. (naughty gynae huh?)
9. DUE DATE? Mid June 2005
10. DID YOU HAVE MORNING SICKNESS? Nope
11. WHAT DID YOU CRAVE? Curry mee and nasi lemak
12. WHO/WHAT IRRITATED YOU THE MOST? Legs cramp at night and towards the last trimester, i am so so heavy to walk.
13. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CHILD SEX? Twin boys
14. DID YOU WISH YOU HAD THE OPPOSITE SEX OF WHAT YOU WERE GETTING? Yes, hahahhahahaha
15. HOW MANY POUNDS DID YOU GAIN THROUGHOUT THE PREGNANCY? 18 kg!
16. DID YOU HAVE A BABY SHOWER? Nope, but had a big full moon party. :)
17. WAS IT A SURPRISE OR DID YOU KNOW? We planned it
18. DID YOU HAVE ANY COMPLICATIONS DURING YOUR PREGNANCY? Yes, during the sixth month pregnant, i was bleed one of the night, i was so worried, rush to hospital, lucky nothing serious, doc said it's normal.
19. WHERE DID YOU GIVE BIRTH? Chinese Maternity Hospital (as my gynae based there)
20. HOW MANY HOURS WERE YOU IN LABOR? 2 hours?
21. WHO DROVE YOU TO THE HOSPITAL? My hub
22. WHO WATCHED YOU GIVE BIRTH? My doctor and nurses only, hub not allow in the operation room.
23. WAS IT NATURAL OR C-SECTION? C-Section
24. DID YOU TAKE MEDICINE TO EASE THE PAIN? I was fully "pengsan" because i scare of pain. :)
27. HOW MUCH DID YOUR CHILD WEIGH? 2.6kg and 2.65kg
28. WHEN WAS YOUR CHILD ACTUALLY BORN ? 24th May 2005
30. WHAT DID YOU NAME HIM/HER? Fearles Lee and Cruz Lee (This is their real name in IC :) )
31. HOW OLD IS YOUR FIRST BORN TODAY? They are 3 years, 9 months & 3 days old.
picture taken when they are four months old and shave them "bold"
Here i would like to pass this tag to ........
1. Binky - mummy to cute little boy Ian
2. Elaine - mummy to cute little girl Amber
3. Jacss - mummy to a pair of handsome twin boys
4. Sie Choo - mummy to a pretty girl - Misha Paris
1. WAS YOUR FIRST PREGNANCY PLANNED? Yes
2. WERE YOU MARRIED AT THE TIME? Yes
3. WHAT WERE YOUR REACTIONS? I was happy, I was worried, and a lot mixed feeling, as i am not sure whether i will success, and have a smooth pregnancy or not.
4. WAS ABORTION AN OPTION FOR YOU? Never
5. HOW OLD WERE YOU? I was 33 (super old lei :))
6. HOW DID YOU FIND OUT YOU WERE PREGNANT? Being told by my gynae, because i was go through IVF and i have to wait for two weeks to know the result whether i am successful or not.
7. WHO DID YOU TELL FIRST? My hub & my mum
8. DID YOU WANT TO FIND OUT THE SEX? No, i only pray for i can have two healthy babies. Anyway, i didn't know both sex, my gynae only told me one and the other one he let me guess. (naughty gynae huh?)
9. DUE DATE? Mid June 2005
10. DID YOU HAVE MORNING SICKNESS? Nope
11. WHAT DID YOU CRAVE? Curry mee and nasi lemak
12. WHO/WHAT IRRITATED YOU THE MOST? Legs cramp at night and towards the last trimester, i am so so heavy to walk.
13. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CHILD SEX? Twin boys
14. DID YOU WISH YOU HAD THE OPPOSITE SEX OF WHAT YOU WERE GETTING? Yes, hahahhahahaha
15. HOW MANY POUNDS DID YOU GAIN THROUGHOUT THE PREGNANCY? 18 kg!
16. DID YOU HAVE A BABY SHOWER? Nope, but had a big full moon party. :)
17. WAS IT A SURPRISE OR DID YOU KNOW? We planned it
18. DID YOU HAVE ANY COMPLICATIONS DURING YOUR PREGNANCY? Yes, during the sixth month pregnant, i was bleed one of the night, i was so worried, rush to hospital, lucky nothing serious, doc said it's normal.
19. WHERE DID YOU GIVE BIRTH? Chinese Maternity Hospital (as my gynae based there)
20. HOW MANY HOURS WERE YOU IN LABOR? 2 hours?
21. WHO DROVE YOU TO THE HOSPITAL? My hub
22. WHO WATCHED YOU GIVE BIRTH? My doctor and nurses only, hub not allow in the operation room.
23. WAS IT NATURAL OR C-SECTION? C-Section
24. DID YOU TAKE MEDICINE TO EASE THE PAIN? I was fully "pengsan" because i scare of pain. :)
27. HOW MUCH DID YOUR CHILD WEIGH? 2.6kg and 2.65kg
28. WHEN WAS YOUR CHILD ACTUALLY BORN ? 24th May 2005
30. WHAT DID YOU NAME HIM/HER? Fearles Lee and Cruz Lee (This is their real name in IC :) )
31. HOW OLD IS YOUR FIRST BORN TODAY? They are 3 years, 9 months & 3 days old.
picture taken when they are four months old and shave them "bold"Here i would like to pass this tag to ........
1. Binky - mummy to cute little boy Ian
2. Elaine - mummy to cute little girl Amber
3. Jacss - mummy to a pair of handsome twin boys
4. Sie Choo - mummy to a pretty girl - Misha Paris
Gran Torino (2008)
Gran Torino (Clint Eastwood, 2008)
In Sergio Leone's invaluable masterpiece The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966), a very young Clint Eastwood plays an unnamed cowboy (popularly known as the Man with No Name), who in his pursuit for hidden treasure, involuntarily gets involved in the ongoing Civil War. In one scene, he witnesses firsthand the effects of war as he rides by fallen soldiers struggling to stay alive amidst mortal wounds and severe despair. Through death and suffering, Eastwood's unnamed cowboy sheds his familiar indifference to partially reveal his affiliation with humanity. A firsthand experience with the human condition pushes him out of the comfort of his chosen neutrality; and all at once, witnesses the repercussions of humanity in its most depraved. Whether or not the encounter causes a dent on a soul that has already been rendered callous by violence is out of the film's range. The Man with No Name rides into the sunset wealthier from the spoils of his adventure, and we can only guess whether he took with him the weight of his wary world.
More than four decades later, Eastwood plays Walt Kowalski, a Korean war veteran whose wartime experiences has turned him into a cynical fossil of a man. The inescapable internal and external hell that Walt struggles with seems to be the apt representative of the grim twilight of all of his famous onscreen personas' lives: The Man With No Name of Leone's popular spaghetti westerns, Inspector Harry Callahan of Don Siegel's Dirty Harry (1971) and its many sequels and offshoots, Bill Munny of Unforgiven (Eastwood, 1992), and to a certain degree, Franky Dunn of Million Dollar Baby (Eastwood, 2004), who share with Walt the edgy perspective in life would normally lead to a lifetime of repressed remorse, lest callousness has crept into the core of their souls to the point that redemption is no longer an option. Walt is observably, an embattled soul who in his old age, is still painfully struggling with the baggage created from a lifetime of accumulated and accumulating sins. It seems that there can be no redemption for Walt; yet the miracle of Eastwood's filmmaking in Gran Torino (which to my mind is one of Eastwood's better films in his career as a director and undoubtedly his best film in the past decade) is to seamlessly convince his audience of Walt's slow yet deliberate turnaround.
The film opens during the wake of Walt's recently deceased wife. His children, their wives, their sons and daughters, attend the ceremony in deference to mere blood relationship. The strain that defines the relationship between Walt and his family is more than apparent: Walt is constantly irritated by the antics of his grandchildren (he silently growls when he catches his grandsons play with his medal of honor; a more prominent though silent growl is expressed when his granddaughter is leading him to give his beloved memorabilia); and the latter repay his irritation with discomfort when in his presence; Walt is disappointed at his son for driving a Japanese-made car, and dismisses him and his wife from his house when they suggested on his birthday that he relocate to a retirement home. Walt is obviously living in a pit. He has no real relationship with anyone, especially after the death of his wife. His health is deteriorating. He is slowly being cornered in a neighborhood where he is obsolete and immaterial.
Walt is a caricature of classic American arrogance: mouthing racist mantras as he sees his formerly White neighborhood fill up with immigrants; embarrassing the novice parish priest as the latter convinces him to go into confession, lecturing the young priest on life and death based on his experiences; exchanging insults with the local barber, supposedly in good and friendly humor. The face of the America he has lived in, loved, and killed for is rapidly changing. His insistence on the America he knew has stunted his life, which primarily consists of him sulking in his front porch while drowning himself in beer or admiring his one treasure, his vintage Gran Torino. In a twist of fate, the Gran Torino, the one thing that represents his ideal America, becomes the spark that pushes him to befriend Thao (Bee Vang), his Hmong neighbor who he catches one night attempting to steal his car as part of the initiation rites for a gang he was coerced to join, and his family.
Absent from Gran Torino is the typical heavy-handedness and seriousness that often plagues Eastwood's directorial efforts. Eastwood treats the material with an irreverence that is refreshing and most surprisingly, quite fun. The story evolves from light and often comedic sketches that depict Walt's persistent intolerance (with Eastwood's over-the-top yet undeniably apt portrayal limited to growls, grimaces, and guttural utterances of profanities and indecent remarks) to a highly emotional morality play, where Walt, with all his ethical inadequacies, is forced to referee a delicate situation that he finds himself in the center of. The sudden gravity that develops midway through the film is unforced; instead, it lures the audience into an emotional involvement with the affairs of Walt, not totally different from the one achieved through the machinations of daytime soap, that escalates in a climactic scene that is resolved by Walt's mental prestidigitation that completes his redemption, something often wished for but hardly achieved by most of cinema's morally weathered figures.
The film opens during the wake of Walt's recently deceased wife. His children, their wives, their sons and daughters, attend the ceremony in deference to mere blood relationship. The strain that defines the relationship between Walt and his family is more than apparent: Walt is constantly irritated by the antics of his grandchildren (he silently growls when he catches his grandsons play with his medal of honor; a more prominent though silent growl is expressed when his granddaughter is leading him to give his beloved memorabilia); and the latter repay his irritation with discomfort when in his presence; Walt is disappointed at his son for driving a Japanese-made car, and dismisses him and his wife from his house when they suggested on his birthday that he relocate to a retirement home. Walt is obviously living in a pit. He has no real relationship with anyone, especially after the death of his wife. His health is deteriorating. He is slowly being cornered in a neighborhood where he is obsolete and immaterial.
Walt is a caricature of classic American arrogance: mouthing racist mantras as he sees his formerly White neighborhood fill up with immigrants; embarrassing the novice parish priest as the latter convinces him to go into confession, lecturing the young priest on life and death based on his experiences; exchanging insults with the local barber, supposedly in good and friendly humor. The face of the America he has lived in, loved, and killed for is rapidly changing. His insistence on the America he knew has stunted his life, which primarily consists of him sulking in his front porch while drowning himself in beer or admiring his one treasure, his vintage Gran Torino. In a twist of fate, the Gran Torino, the one thing that represents his ideal America, becomes the spark that pushes him to befriend Thao (Bee Vang), his Hmong neighbor who he catches one night attempting to steal his car as part of the initiation rites for a gang he was coerced to join, and his family.
Absent from Gran Torino is the typical heavy-handedness and seriousness that often plagues Eastwood's directorial efforts. Eastwood treats the material with an irreverence that is refreshing and most surprisingly, quite fun. The story evolves from light and often comedic sketches that depict Walt's persistent intolerance (with Eastwood's over-the-top yet undeniably apt portrayal limited to growls, grimaces, and guttural utterances of profanities and indecent remarks) to a highly emotional morality play, where Walt, with all his ethical inadequacies, is forced to referee a delicate situation that he finds himself in the center of. The sudden gravity that develops midway through the film is unforced; instead, it lures the audience into an emotional involvement with the affairs of Walt, not totally different from the one achieved through the machinations of daytime soap, that escalates in a climactic scene that is resolved by Walt's mental prestidigitation that completes his redemption, something often wished for but hardly achieved by most of cinema's morally weathered figures.
lil that i know...
my boys turn 45 months old today and another three more months, they will celebrate their 4 year old birthday!!!!
I won't update their monthly development, but i will jot down how they put a smile on my face. I "think" they are more "managable" at this stage, not always drive me up the wall, less screaming, less "smacking" their bum bum. Now i only give them a "killer stare" they can read me already, and usually will use the magic word " sorry mummy " then i am ok again. Unless sometime they really do something make me angry, i will "beat" their hands.
Less fighting among the brothers, will help each other.
- When i sent them to school, Cruz always is the "lazy bum", don't carry his school bag, Fearles is the one who always help the brother to carry the bags. :(
- When they are downstair watching tv, if one of them "craving" for the "smelly bolster" and "jut jut", usually Fearles is the one will go upstair and take the "smelly bolster" and "jut jut" down and he won't forget his brother Cruz, he will bring Cruz one together down and "throw it" at him.
Sometime it also funny to see two of them having mini conversation, and i find that Cruz is very long winded, he will nag nag nag till the person do what he want and he like people or he like to address himself as "Cruz Lee" instead of "Cruz".
- While Cruz want to drink Yakult, he will take one bottle for Fearles, but before passing to Fearles, he will said " Fearles said, thank you Cruz Lee", as usual Fearles always had the cool attitude, he don't simply said "thank you", "please" and "sorry". On the other hand, Cruz always "forcing" Fearles to said "thank you Cruz Lee!" After few "forcing", Fearles said "thank you Cruz Lee" and my little chatter box Cruz will said " welcome" and pass him the Yakult.
- Sometime when they having shower, Fearles will said "Cruz is naughty boy", and Cruz don't want admit he is naughty, he will tell Fearles or he will "nag" Fearles and said " Don't call me naughty Cruz Lee huh!" he will nag nag nag till sometime i also cannot stand.
- There is one time while they sitting on the coach watching tv in the room, and Fearles accidently beat Cruz, Cruz said "don't beat me ok, Fearles?" Fearles act cool, mouth zip, pretend not hearing, and Cruz will go "said Ok Fearles" "said Ok" "said Ok Fearles" "said ok"!!! Till sometime i have to tell Fearles, quick and said "Ok Cruz Lee" if no Cruz will never end and the mummy got headache.
Last week while i was blog hopping at home, i was reading Hijackqueen blog on this post, Cruz sitting on my lap and suddenly he said "mummy, HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL!" i look at him, i never know my boys will know "high school musical" because i don't have any high school musical CD at home. I got a bit surprise to know that actually he knew High School Musical. hahhahaha
My life won't be boring with my two boys, everyday they will give me surprise, and lots entertainment from two of them. Last night, after read them bed time story, about to sleep, suddenly Cruz sit up and take off his jut jut and tell me "mummy, teacher said , *point at his mouth* this is MULUT, this is HIDUNG, this is MATA, this is TELINGA!!" WAH!!! I open my mouth so big!! Now i know, my boys do learn something in school, at least they remember what the teacher taught.
Now, they got a "bad habit" like to "tell lie"! Each day, after i come back from work, most of the day they will tell me with acting some more. Fearles will have pity face and said " mummy, i cried, just now kakak beat me". At first i do suspect on my maid whether she really beat my sons, but actual is my boys make up the story. Like today, teacher call me and told me Cruz hurt his face while playing with another boy, they bump into each other, and Cruz face got blue black, but nothing serious, teacher just let me know. Later in the afternoon i do call my sil and check with her since she is picking up my sons from the school. She said, ya the face got little patch blue black, she ask me what happen, i said he bump into a boy in the school. Then my sil laugh, she said when she ask Cruz what happen to his face, he told my sil "kakak beat me!!" sei mou?
This is little update about my boys. Happy 45 months old to my two boys.
Fearles & Cruz @ 45 months old
I won't update their monthly development, but i will jot down how they put a smile on my face. I "think" they are more "managable" at this stage, not always drive me up the wall, less screaming, less "smacking" their bum bum. Now i only give them a "killer stare" they can read me already, and usually will use the magic word " sorry mummy " then i am ok again. Unless sometime they really do something make me angry, i will "beat" their hands.
Less fighting among the brothers, will help each other.
- When i sent them to school, Cruz always is the "lazy bum", don't carry his school bag, Fearles is the one who always help the brother to carry the bags. :(
- When they are downstair watching tv, if one of them "craving" for the "smelly bolster" and "jut jut", usually Fearles is the one will go upstair and take the "smelly bolster" and "jut jut" down and he won't forget his brother Cruz, he will bring Cruz one together down and "throw it" at him.
Sometime it also funny to see two of them having mini conversation, and i find that Cruz is very long winded, he will nag nag nag till the person do what he want and he like people or he like to address himself as "Cruz Lee" instead of "Cruz".
- While Cruz want to drink Yakult, he will take one bottle for Fearles, but before passing to Fearles, he will said " Fearles said, thank you Cruz Lee", as usual Fearles always had the cool attitude, he don't simply said "thank you", "please" and "sorry". On the other hand, Cruz always "forcing" Fearles to said "thank you Cruz Lee!" After few "forcing", Fearles said "thank you Cruz Lee" and my little chatter box Cruz will said " welcome" and pass him the Yakult.
- Sometime when they having shower, Fearles will said "Cruz is naughty boy", and Cruz don't want admit he is naughty, he will tell Fearles or he will "nag" Fearles and said " Don't call me naughty Cruz Lee huh!" he will nag nag nag till sometime i also cannot stand.
- There is one time while they sitting on the coach watching tv in the room, and Fearles accidently beat Cruz, Cruz said "don't beat me ok, Fearles?" Fearles act cool, mouth zip, pretend not hearing, and Cruz will go "said Ok Fearles" "said Ok" "said Ok Fearles" "said ok"!!! Till sometime i have to tell Fearles, quick and said "Ok Cruz Lee" if no Cruz will never end and the mummy got headache.
Last week while i was blog hopping at home, i was reading Hijackqueen blog on this post, Cruz sitting on my lap and suddenly he said "mummy, HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL!" i look at him, i never know my boys will know "high school musical" because i don't have any high school musical CD at home. I got a bit surprise to know that actually he knew High School Musical. hahhahaha
My life won't be boring with my two boys, everyday they will give me surprise, and lots entertainment from two of them. Last night, after read them bed time story, about to sleep, suddenly Cruz sit up and take off his jut jut and tell me "mummy, teacher said , *point at his mouth* this is MULUT, this is HIDUNG, this is MATA, this is TELINGA!!" WAH!!! I open my mouth so big!! Now i know, my boys do learn something in school, at least they remember what the teacher taught.
Now, they got a "bad habit" like to "tell lie"! Each day, after i come back from work, most of the day they will tell me with acting some more. Fearles will have pity face and said " mummy, i cried, just now kakak beat me". At first i do suspect on my maid whether she really beat my sons, but actual is my boys make up the story. Like today, teacher call me and told me Cruz hurt his face while playing with another boy, they bump into each other, and Cruz face got blue black, but nothing serious, teacher just let me know. Later in the afternoon i do call my sil and check with her since she is picking up my sons from the school. She said, ya the face got little patch blue black, she ask me what happen, i said he bump into a boy in the school. Then my sil laugh, she said when she ask Cruz what happen to his face, he told my sil "kakak beat me!!" sei mou?
This is little update about my boys. Happy 45 months old to my two boys.
Fearles & Cruz @ 45 months old
My Creation Part 13
Over the weekend, i am fixing some bento lunch box for my boys again because I want to try out the two new rice moulds i bought sometime ago.
round shape rice mould, some meat ball, sweet and sour meat
and anchovies (my sons all time favourite) with a crab stick rocket
deco on top.
triangle small rice, same menu as the afternoon, i add in
two quail egg for them.
triangle rice with cauliflower, meat patties with sauce,
anchovies and two strawberries.
Happy bento-ing everyone.
round shape rice mould, some meat ball, sweet and sour meat
and anchovies (my sons all time favourite) with a crab stick rocket
deco on top.
triangle small rice, same menu as the afternoon, i add in
two quail egg for them.
triangle rice with cauliflower, meat patties with sauce,
anchovies and two strawberries.
Happy bento-ing everyone.
Unique furniture for your home
Usually end of the year or beginning of the year I always heard people saying, “I am moving, moving to a new house” then not long after that i will get invite to the house warming party. I love and enjoy seeing how people decorate their new house, their furniture, house decoration and their garden.
After one year moving to my new house, I am a bit bored looking at my same old furniture in my house, thought of changing some furniture and make my house look new again. While I was browsing through the website one of the day I come across this Lombok Eastern Inspired Living; I am so delight to see all the beautiful furniture on this Lombok website. Beside than the usual furniture like beds, bedside tables, desks, office chairs, dining table & more, they also have some unique and stunning home decorating accessories, like candles, cushions, rugs and runners, quilts and throws, you can all find it here.
This is a furniture shop based in London, but this shop is renowned for stylish Eastern inspired furniture. I read further about the store, I am surprise to know that, the co-founder of Lombok actually brings in the beautiful furniture all the way from Jakarta! If you want to know the story behind Lombok, you can log on to their website to find out how the co-founder Alex start this business.
I browse through the item one by one, it is so beautiful, it look so exclusive and classy but of course the price also a bit pricey. Now I am eyeing on a few items which I can affordable like Log Basket, I can put it in my living room as a basket to keep magazines and newspaper, a new laundry basket, since my old laundry basket look old already and a lamp shades, other just let me drool over it first.
After one year moving to my new house, I am a bit bored looking at my same old furniture in my house, thought of changing some furniture and make my house look new again. While I was browsing through the website one of the day I come across this Lombok Eastern Inspired Living; I am so delight to see all the beautiful furniture on this Lombok website. Beside than the usual furniture like beds, bedside tables, desks, office chairs, dining table & more, they also have some unique and stunning home decorating accessories, like candles, cushions, rugs and runners, quilts and throws, you can all find it here.
This is a furniture shop based in London, but this shop is renowned for stylish Eastern inspired furniture. I read further about the store, I am surprise to know that, the co-founder of Lombok actually brings in the beautiful furniture all the way from Jakarta! If you want to know the story behind Lombok, you can log on to their website to find out how the co-founder Alex start this business.
I browse through the item one by one, it is so beautiful, it look so exclusive and classy but of course the price also a bit pricey. Now I am eyeing on a few items which I can affordable like Log Basket, I can put it in my living room as a basket to keep magazines and newspaper, a new laundry basket, since my old laundry basket look old already and a lamp shades, other just let me drool over it first.
Those who want to get an unique and classy wooden furniture for your new home, wait no more, please log in to Lombok
...por fín
colección verano 2009
piezas únicas hechas a mano con mucho amor
Si queréis saber alguna medida o precio sólo tenéis que dejarme un 'comment' con vuestro mail o directamente enviadme un e-mail a lasjoyasdelaelena@gmail.com
Espero que os guste de verdad. Aquí está:
rosette
rosette coeur
moyenne
doublette
matilde
triplette
amandine
petite amandine
baguine
petite baguine
rondette
antoinette
petite antoinette
pucette
isabelle
isabella
isabelline
petite isabelline
Backdated - Lion Dance
This year, my sons manage to see a few round lion dance. This make them very happy, till today they still ask for lion dance. We got a lion dance competition CD at home, they have been watching over and over again.
this is a group picture, when all the kids waiting for the "lion" to come
Beside than the chinese new year eve they saw once at FGS, then on the 8th days of chinese new year which is a replacement holiday for FT day, i brought them to mid valley. Since i need to change the SD card for their Ninetendo (yes, my boys very rough on playing it, this is the second card i change for them and it's not cheap ok.:( ) I leave them with their daddy and maid at the shop, then i went shopping myself. hahahhahahhahahahha
After my shopping while on my way up to the game shop to look for them, i saw lion dance troupe are getting ready in front of Yamaha want to do "lion dance". I quickly run up to the shop and bring my boys down to see the lion dance.
On the 14th days of chinese new year, hub and BILs engaged a lion dance troupe to 'bless' their stalls at the market. We (me and sils) bring all the kids to market to see the lion dance. Two rounds, one is on the 1st floor of the market, that is meant for the whole market, second round is on the individual stall that engaged them.
After my shopping while on my way up to the game shop to look for them, i saw lion dance troupe are getting ready in front of Yamaha want to do "lion dance". I quickly run up to the shop and bring my boys down to see the lion dance.
On the 14th days of chinese new year, hub and BILs engaged a lion dance troupe to 'bless' their stalls at the market. We (me and sils) bring all the kids to market to see the lion dance. Two rounds, one is on the 1st floor of the market, that is meant for the whole market, second round is on the individual stall that engaged them.
This is at the main market
my two boys manage to get the orange from the "lion"
this is a group picture, when all the kids waiting for the "lion" to come
"lion" eat the vege at our stall
lion resting and doing the flower deco
tada!!!!! it's ready!
father and son monkey-ing at the market.
On the last day of chinese new year, 15th day (chap goh meh), we went out for dinner instead of cooking a storm at home. We had dinner at Oversea Restaurant at Jaya 1, after dinner, we heard there is "lion dance" sound from somewhere, we go and find where the sound come from. My boys so happy they can see the last round Lion Dance, when we are there it almost finish, and the lion already finish their "acrobatic stunt" we still manage to see the ending part. That is one of the bistro engaged the lion dance troupe, i think must be the expensive one, and after the ending lion dance show, they light up 8 long fire crackers!! One of the famous MY FM DJ and one of the local artist was there with the bistro owner to receive the "blessing" from the "lion".
After watching so many lion dance this year. Two of my boys also do their own lion dance at home. Since they don't have lion head to dance with they use the blanket, jump from one bed to another bed. Sick or not? Not only this, they wear their arm gear and leg gear too!!!! Actually it is Fearles more "addicted" to lion dance, he start all this first, then only his brother Cruz also follow. *slap forehead*
*sorry for the blur picture*
Hand and leg gear - BOLSTERS
Milk (2008)
Milk (Gus Van Sant, 2008)
Milk, to put it simply, is a terrific film. Gus Van Sant's take on the life of Harvey Milk (immaculately played by Sean Penn), America's first openly gay elected public official, is depicted within a perspective of acceptance rather than mere tolerance. As a result, the film, despite its largely political content, does away with the polemics of the gay rights movement and instead looks into the logic of the movement: that it is not sexual preference that divides us but our common humanity that binds us. Van Sant adeptly recreates the era through Harris Savides' stunning cinematography that is only amplified by Van Sant's use of several archived footage. Dustin Lance Black's screenplay is understandably sentimental, since Harvey Milk, with his accomplishments in giving the gay community a voice in American politics and his tragic demise, has turned into an icon. Van Sant acknowledges the screenplay's need to beatify its subject, but instead of simply subscribing to what's written, he maneuvers the film to demystify Milk, and bring him back to Earth from the pantheon of icons whose accomplished histories have dehumanized them completely. Thus, Milk is most delicious during the moments it showcases Milk in his most human, where we sense, without Van Sant announcing it, the troubles and conflicts that burden the man.
Milk opens with Harvey hooking up with a young man in one of New York City's subway stations. Scott Smith (James Franco, who makes most his timeless good looks to portray Harvey's handsome target), dodges Harvey's propositions with playful candor. Van Sant shoots the sequence with an unwavering interest to the game; his camera switching from Harvey's persistent face (his facial gestures and vocal intonation protests the lie that he is living as he is reeling in a potential catch to cap the forty years of living inside the closet) to Scott's sly smiling mug. Harvey succeeds and the two leave the subway as a couple. They make love in a hotel room; the screen purposely covered by the couple's copulating bodies, bronzed by the room's yellow lights. After their lovemaking session, the two playfully celebrate Harvey's birthday. It is this endearingly intimate portrait that jumpstarts the film, purposely reminding us that Milk, despite his contributions to the gay rights movement, is as human as any of us, that he is persistently needful of human connection yet fumbling in front of the object of his desires.
This is the balancing act Van Sant maintains throughout the film: to show the story of Harvey Milk both as an important portion of American history and as a struggle by a man forced into the limelight while battling his own personal demons. It is this balancing act that turns Milk into something more than a biopic. Milk is a fascinating portrait that transports the viewer in a situation where the gay psyche is no longer marginalized but is the mainstream. Absent the heavy-handed pedagogy that usually infests films that are burdened with big issues, Van Sant is able to tell his story with as much levity for the viewer to partially forget the issues and just get swept by the immense range of emotions (of anger, love, hate, lust, etc.) that are fluently evoked by Milk's struggle.
Dan White (Josh Brolin), who shot Harvey Milk and San Francisco mayor George Moscone (Victor Garber) one morning out of mixed emotions of anger and insecurity, is shown not as the representative of America's intolerant majority, but as an ostracized soul, trembling in the midst of an overwhelming change because he is fearful of being outnumbered; probably because he himself has been closeted by his culture and family. He stands in the middle of two warring factions (Anita Bryant and Senator Briggs' conservative Christian front and Milk and Mayor Moscone's gay rights defense), where he and what he represents are rendered insignificant as a result of the social and cultural movement brought about by Milk's agenda.
Van Sant, who has depicted the outcasts and the outcasted in Gerry (2002), Elephant (2003) and Last Days (2005) with an intriguing mixture of sophistication and simplicity, paints Dan White's character with the same inexplicable psychology that consumes the outwardly normal characters he explored in his previous films. In fact, most of the characters in Milk are similarly explored as damaged souls, inadvertently alienated by the rapidly moving times and the rest of humanity's violent stampede to keep up. Cleve Jones (Emile Hirsch) has evolved from being an apathetic good-timer to Milk's campaign manager through sheer circumstance; a salvaged soul who has managed to keep up and be in the mainstream. Jack Lira (Diego Luna), Milk's beloved lover, passionately raw and perpetually jealous, is unable to keep track, in one beautifully shot sequence (Harris Savides' tracking shot of Milk's confused steps up his apartment's bathroom to find Lira dead is one of the film's strongest moments), just gives up.
Milk seems to be a departure for Van Sant, especially from the sequence of films he directed previously (from Gerry to Paranoid Park (2007), all of which can hardly be defined as commercial ventures). In fact, for a time, it seems like Van Sant has sold out again, the same way he did when he made Good Will Hunting (1997) and Finding Forrester (2000), which, in my opinion, are merely finely directed Hallmark features, not films that should be taken seriously. However, in Milk, Van Sant is able to reach a wider audience without sacrificing artistic integrity. True, the film indeed flirts with melodrama (a gay kid calls Harvey to tell him that he would commit suicide instead of being sent to a correction facility by his parents; the side story finds fruition when the same kid calls Harvey to tell him he won in Los Angeles, and that he has escaped from the clutches of his parents and into independence), yet beyond these rare missteps, Milk is an absolute triumph.
Doubt (2008)
Doubt (John Patrick Shanley, 2008)
While film and theater bear similarities to the point that theater directors often cross-over to film and vice versa, there is a distinction that separates the two art forms apart. Film is a recorded medium, where a single performance is eternalized. Theater, on the other hand, is organic, where each individual performance has certain nuances that differentiate itself from previous or future ones. That said, adapting a stage play into a film involves something more than recording a performance. For the film to truly stand on its own, the director must infuse the material a personality that will make it distinct and memorable, enough for it to be immortalized not only in form but in spirit. Take for example Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), the prolific director's take on Stephen Sondheim's musical of the same title, about the legendary vengeful barber who murders his clients and stuffs them in into his meat pies. Burton remains faithful to the material but infuses it with a visual style, a sense of comedic darkness that is distinctly his own. In turn, he creates one of the most memorable stage-to-film adaptations in recent years.
While film and theater bear similarities to the point that theater directors often cross-over to film and vice versa, there is a distinction that separates the two art forms apart. Film is a recorded medium, where a single performance is eternalized. Theater, on the other hand, is organic, where each individual performance has certain nuances that differentiate itself from previous or future ones. That said, adapting a stage play into a film involves something more than recording a performance. For the film to truly stand on its own, the director must infuse the material a personality that will make it distinct and memorable, enough for it to be immortalized not only in form but in spirit. Take for example Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), the prolific director's take on Stephen Sondheim's musical of the same title, about the legendary vengeful barber who murders his clients and stuffs them in into his meat pies. Burton remains faithful to the material but infuses it with a visual style, a sense of comedic darkness that is distinctly his own. In turn, he creates one of the most memorable stage-to-film adaptations in recent years.
John Patrick Shanley's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Doubt: A Parable is an electrifying examination on how we live in a gray world that morality and the institutions that espouse it insist on classifying as either black or white. The play centers on Sister Aloysius, the strict and stern principal of a Bronx school, who headstrongly launches an investigation against Father Flynn, the amiable parish priest, when Sister James, an impressionable young nun, finds Donald Miller, the school's first Black student, distraught after a private session with the priest. The play does away with revelations, keeping the narrative within a certain level of very uncomfortable uncertainty. It is this uncertainty that fuels the play's questions, and these questions are just left unanswered, ultimately giving birth to further queries on the repercussions of the fallibility of supposedly ironclad principles such as religion and justice.
Shanley's film adaptation of his own play, I suspect, barely differs from the stage version. Doubt is embellished by Roger Deakins' reliable cinematography and Howard Shore's cleverly spare musical score. However, underneath the cinematic trappings that Shanley has diligently put together, Doubt runs like a theater piece, stubbornly mechanical as to how the story unfolds, with conversations that have a tendency to overflow with literary self-importance. Symbolisms, some obvious and some archaic, abound. However, Doubt feels to be as potent in its insistence on denting humanity's reliance on the questionable certainty of morality with a tool that seems as natural as the world itself: doubt. The only problem with Doubt is that it is overly reliant on its source material, down to the overly theatrical elements (which is undoubtedly the result of having the same person adapt and direct his own play; we never really get to see a valid re-imagining of the material), to the point that it feels absolutely inert: an overbearing and at times, rambling piece whose only real value as a film is that it made the source material widely available, and nothing more.
Thus, the burden of making Doubt an effective theater-to-film adaptation belongs largely to the ensemble. Amy Adams, who plays Sister James, personifies naiveté very well (as we've also seen in her roles in Phil Morrison's Junebug (2005) and Kevin Lima's Enchanted (2007)). It is the way that she commands this facile innocence into the realm of distrust and suspicion that is quietly riveting. Philip Seymour Hoffman, who plays Father Flynn, adeptly crafts a character that is the center of the film's persisting ambiguity, most of the time, convincingly sociable and intelligent, delivering rousing sermons in the pulpit that navigates the Catholic Church's eventual liberation from its dogmatism, and sometimes, palpably predatory. Viola Davis, who powerfully plays Donald's working-class mother in an extended scene with Sister Aloysius, has the duty of further deepening the dilemma, infusing Shanley's discussions on the blurry spectrum between good and evil with the expansive reach of real world poverty. Her surprising reaction to Sister Aloysius' affronts introduces the malady of social inequity to the picture: if Father Flynn is indeed guilty as Sister Aloysius claims, is his actions, considering that it is Donald's only hope in a world that has decidedly existed against his race and gender, evil?
Of course, the picture really belongs to Meryl Streep, who graduates Sister Aloysius as a caricature of authoritarian pompousness into a more understandable monster of a woman: a wasted figure that retreats to religion in the midst of tragedy (which also explains why it is so easy for her to give it up). Her motivations for destroying Father Flynn are unclear: is it really in the interest of justice? to protect Donald Miller from the abusive priest? to quietly assert the strength that the Catholic Church, through its dogmatic insistence that only males can be priests and nuns are answerable to priests, has deprived her? Despite this ambiguity in her character, Streep plays Sister Aloysius with methodical coldness, but with an allowance to show cracks so that little bits of her shrouded humanity can be observed. Doubt, as what I think is only a recorded version of the play, a mere product of modern convenience, belongs largely to the ensemble, which, through the individual cast members' inspired performances, has elevated the film from a mere a typical adaptation to something more.
Of course, the picture really belongs to Meryl Streep, who graduates Sister Aloysius as a caricature of authoritarian pompousness into a more understandable monster of a woman: a wasted figure that retreats to religion in the midst of tragedy (which also explains why it is so easy for her to give it up). Her motivations for destroying Father Flynn are unclear: is it really in the interest of justice? to protect Donald Miller from the abusive priest? to quietly assert the strength that the Catholic Church, through its dogmatic insistence that only males can be priests and nuns are answerable to priests, has deprived her? Despite this ambiguity in her character, Streep plays Sister Aloysius with methodical coldness, but with an allowance to show cracks so that little bits of her shrouded humanity can be observed. Doubt, as what I think is only a recorded version of the play, a mere product of modern convenience, belongs largely to the ensemble, which, through the individual cast members' inspired performances, has elevated the film from a mere a typical adaptation to something more.
Valentines
Lately I have been working on my Valentines. I personally make about 40 of them for friends and family, a tradition that started with Lcat about 10 years ago. I still have quite a few to make, but am hopeful that they will all be completed and sent out before Vday. `
Making my dot
Last weekend I worked with encaustics for the first time. I had no idea what I was doing and it was a little intimidating at first, but lots of fun once I got started. I noticed that the second I put on the first layer of wax, i immediately scraped it off. It was hard to just let go and make a mess. I started a little painting of an iron, it was awful, but I'm glad I had the opportunity to make my first dot.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)