Another movie list!

Top 50 Dystopian Movies of All Time!

Wa-hey!! Time to start queueing up some torrents :) Surprisingly, I've already watched the #1 on the list: Metropolis (1927). It was recommended to me by another film buff. It's a silent movie ahead of its time. Sadly, I kept falling asleep and only made it halfway before I gave up. Yes. I know. Short attention span :P

At #2 is A Clockwork Orange! WHICH, btw, I am going to get to see on the BIG SCREEN in a couple of weeks :D After that, I'm just waiting for the day The Shining gets a chance on the big screen again... *fingers crossed*

For all those Blade Runner fans, good news for you.

Eerily quiet

This is the main corridor in my office building:

Thousands of footsteps tred it everyday.
But today, it's covered with astro turf!

And it's all MIIIIIINE!!!
(Me to the Security Guard: "Come lie on the grass with me!")

iPod Touch

I got to play with one of these babies today:

It's slim, it's sleek, it's sexy... But my fingers are too fat to use it :P Well, for typing things anyway. T'was surprisingly difficult for me to type out a URL. Mm, overall impression? Nice, but... it's 200 squids for a puny 8GB and not that many extra features. How often am I going to get a free wifi signal? If I'm at home, I'm going to be using my Mbp. The 160GB iPod Classic is much better value at 229 squids. Yet it irks me to get the Classic since it's going to be obsolete... I'm currently lugging my Mbp to work, however, since the wifi got denied on my level, the Mbp has become an oversized mp3 player and calendar. It's pointless working on documents on my Mbp since USB sticks are blocked, and I can no longer transfer files to my desktop via email. I'm a little tired of taking my Mbp to work just for music :P Hrmph, must think about it.

The new Nano is, as I thought, pointless. Definitely not as sexy as the original version either.

Currently...

Missing my Mum :(

Strangely, she's the one reason I would consider going back to Sydnery for at the moment. 29 days sure seem to have went by pretty fast.

"That's not my ice-cream..."

"... it's Mum's!"
(says Dad as he steals a bit :) )

Tuy Lei Loh Mo

"Wow you really have an overblown sense of Asian insecurity. Maybe you'll get over it once you've gotten through puberty."

I personally don't get it. Cheap shot I say. And a cowardly one at that. No name, no contact, most likely a total random stranger. Friends would normally drop me a personal email, or at least put their name down.

Here I am, writing my thoughts. Putting myself out there. To gawd knows how many people. The thing that gets me is, YOU, know who I am. You've seen my pictures, you've read my entries, you've linked through to here via a mutual friend's blog. Rah rah rah. I've bumped into readers at a wedding before. So it really irritates me when I get comments like the above. Unjustified. Venomous. Faceless.

Am I insecure about being Oriental?

*shrug* Define insecurity. Do I claim the Oriental race is better than any other? No. Can I use an Oriental squat toilet? Sure can, I grew up with one. Am I embarrassed about ordering dim sum in my bad Oriental-speak? Not if it gets me my chicken feet (fong jaow!), spare ribs (pai-kuat!) and turnip cake (lo-bak-koh!). Do I find Oriental guys attractive? Strangely, no. That's probably not a big surprise to my friends. I don't know why, I'm just not attracted to Oriental guys. Closest I got was to an Eurasian, but that quickly turned to dislike when I realised he was a dick. Am I good at Physics? No, I almost failed. Do I like being Oriental? I don't know what it's like _not_ to be Oriental. I don't hate it, and I've never pretended to be anything else. Have I ever been bullied for being Oriental? I went to highschool in a distinctively white neighbourhood. What do you think?

Do I appreciate RnB? I did, but then I got through puberty :P (Thanks M ;))

A lot of the stuff I write, is personal. I'm talking about my experiences. My parents. My family. My friends. My travels. My life. Did I take a shot at the entire Oriental community? Not that I'm aware of.

*shrug* What exactly am I insecure about?

I _do_ have a small Oriental penis (it's called a clit) if you feel like empathising about insecurities :P

Number of times the word "Oriental" blatantly appears in this post: 12! *grin*

Parents

To all of you with kids out there, never bicker with your spouse infront of your kid. No matter how old your kid is. It still pains me to see my parents argue. I'm sure there's love, and I'm sure my parents would do anything for each other. I'm sure my Dad's just a grumpy old Chinaman. You can take the Chinaman out of China, but you definitely can't take the China out of Chinaman *sigh*

Or maybe it's just all men who behave like this :P There's definitely an exponential increase in stubborness and willingness to argue about anything as males age :P

It makes me think, gawd, what are my chances of finding someone who shares the same sort of passions and ideals I do? I really don't want to spend my old age sitting next to someone, not talking and watching wildlife documentaries on TV!

The other option is to spend my pension money on toy boy gigolos.

I still stand by my decision not to get married.

Rome

Where do I start?

How about the drive to Gatwick airport in a minicab at 4am. I've jumped out of a plane, leapt off a 40m tower, gone diving with sharks, and _never_ feared for my life before. Yet, at 4am on Saturday, I was gripping onto my aunt and muttering, "JESUS CHRIST! F*CK!", every few minutes. I could see the driver's eyes start to shut in the rear view mirror, and I honestly thought he was going to swerve into oncoming traffic a number of times. My aunt had to keep hitting him on the shoulder to wake him up. We eventually got there in one piece. I ended up lecturing the guy and swearing at him for putting my life and my family at risk. Fcker. Gawd.

Rome is diseased. I'm sorry to say, that the more time I spend in it, the more I hate its people. The city itself is beautiful, with lots to see. However, I've been three times, and each time, my experience with Romans just gets worse.

The first time was 6 years ago. My butt got scandalously abused. So much random pinching!

The second time was in 2005. That's when I started to notice that locals in Rome were evil. People are just motivated by greed. In one way, I feel sorry for the Romans as their city is a living tourist attraction. There are tons of annoying tourists everywhere. From morning to dusk. I can see why the locals would be pissed off at having their home invaded in this way. Yet, they've adapted, and figured out that the best revenge that can be taken, is to rip you off in any way possible. Which is how I ended up treating my brother to a gelato cone that cost EU$9, when the average cost is just EU$2! I'll never forget the time a local at the train station offered to help us out (with help we didn't need), then proceeded to boldly ask us for money.

The problem is, when you don't speak the language, it's really hard to argue. Most of the time, you're just shocked at the bill, and you just accept it cause it's easier than causing trouble. Which is how, this time round, we ordered a cafe freddo for EU$3, and ended up with this...

...THING...

... that cost EU$8.50 each!

This coming from a place that delivers to the Pope himself!

We were taken for a ride a couple of times during this trip, and only realised it too late when we thought about it more later. My Dad was even manhandled by some gypsies. If I never step foot in Rome again, it really wouldn't be a loss for me. It's not just culture that makes a city endearing, it's the people too. Romans, truly suck ass. In a really bad way :P

My Homer moment

It's been a tough couple of weeks at w.o.r.k. I get in early (enough to get a seat on the tube). I leave late(r than usual). My daily diet now consists of a double machiatto, a premium apple muffin, a "skinny milky tea" (it's what Engrish girls order), and if I'm really desperate before I get home for dinner - a vending machine snack.

I was reaaaally desperate yesterday. Then this happened:

The vending machine starts beeping at me, and I let loose an internal scream, *RRRRAAAARGH*... and start pounding on the glass. Give. Me. My. CHIPPIES.

Then I realise where I am, so I sheepishly stop, make a new selection and walk away hoping nobody saw.

To-doo-dooo-dooo...

Mai tan!

Me: "Daaad, you can't say that in France! It's L'addision!"
Dad: "Why not? This is a Vietnamese restaurant."
Me: "Yeah, and they speak French and Vietnamese!"

Strangely enough though, the waiter understood and brought us the bill. I suspect it's because my Dad also did the universal hand signal for, "bill please" ;)

Paris with my parents turned out better than I expected :) My Mum would be silly with me, and my Dad... he's the one responsible for my sense of humour *grin* My favourite moments were watching the Aussie vs Wales rugby match infront of Hotel de Ville with my Dad, and making my Mum pose for me in a beret *grin*

My Dad's snap-happiness:

My Mum's favourite French icon:

And check out what someone did to this poor dog!

Lip smacky noises

I fcking hate it. That *smoooch* *smoooch*, wet lip smacky noise. Lately, I'm surrounded by it. It's early morning and packed in the tube. I have nowhere to turn, and there's a couple making out infront of me. I feel like throwing up. On them *UGH* I'm on the Eurostar, I'm stuck infront of a couple making out, my Shuffle is out of battery *BLEAGH* I'm in line at a restaurant, guess what? Yup, there's a Parisian couple making those noises again. It doesn't sound any better when French people do it :P

People. Try to keep your lip smacky noises down! I don't know what it is about the sounds, but it's so nauseating. I'm tired. It's a lot of physical exertion on my part to restrain my eyeballs from rolling back into my skull.

Braaaaains...

Remember how I mentioned caucasians cringe at orientals eating chicken feet? WELL, I was cringing whilst watching the Frenchies buy this at Marché Bastille:

I always thought it was just a zombie delicacy *grin*

It's hilarious hanging out with my parents in an European city. Especially with my Dad. He has a way of finding the Malaysian/oriental equivalent for whatever he sees. So paella, becomes nasi lemak, and churros becomes yau ja gwai! *lol* I thought it was going to be difficult finding food for my Dad to eat in Paris. Luckily, there's a great Viet area around Place d'Italie, Avenue d'Ivry and Avenue Choisy. That's a tip for any other orientals taking their strictly "oriental food only" folks to Paris :P

Grand bowls of Pho *MmmM*

Thanks Ms K, for pointing me in Le Bambou's direction :) It was packed and we had to wait awhile, and the restaurant manager was laughing at us cause we couldn't speak Viet or French, but it was also dang good Pho :) Just how good is this restaurant? Well, it makes the owner rich enough to be able to afford lots of jade bling. I'm talking BIG jade bling. Doesn't come cheap.

The next challenge, is trying to find food my Dad will eat in Rome next weekend. That's going to be trickier.

In my inbox

"Subject: Your cv
Hi Shireen

Having found your CV on jobsite I wanted to let you know that I do not have any immediate vacancies to suit you but we will begin our search.

In the meantime I would like to invite you as my guest to an excellent seminar which will definitely improve your chances of success at your next interview and help you negotiate a higher salary.

Two tickets to this event are normally £1,790, but you can attend completely complimentary as my guest - this is my gift to you. If, after reading, you need additional tickets just go through the enrolment process again...

http://champions.universalevents.com.au/ukbts.asp?cli=CLO2041158"

*lol* Is this... a trapezoid? :) I know I shouldn't be so cynical, but... Come on, if this seminar was worth going to, it wouldn't be for free :P You don't see Clinton giving away tickets to hear him speak. And his tickets were a lot less than 850 squids! "My gift to you"? Who exactly is this David from Alternative Direction? Click on the link above and, _could_ the webpage be anymore sickening in its sycophantic choice of words?

"Congratulations, you are reading this page because you are part of the elite minority of people committed to success and achievement... YOU …are part of a select group of people who have been invited to take part in the acclaimed, 3 day Breakthrough to Success - Wealth and Power weekend seminar … with international accelerated human change expert, Christopher Howard"

I'm part of the elite minority committed to success and achievement? I guess everyone else strives to be a loser *grin*

What the hell is an accelerated human change expert? If I go in to this conference, do I evolutionise and come out with a third breast? *grin*

Happy Birthday Mum!

I watched my parents at dinner. I love the fact that my Dad will always pick a juicy bit of crab or lobster and deshell it for my Mum. I love how my Dad, for the first time in all his life, opened the car door for my Mum tonight *lol*

My parents, don't openly show affection in public. I've only ever seen my parents hold hands once. So it's really cute when things like the above happens :)

Angry fat men are not delightful to deal with

'Nuff said.

High tea @ The Lanesborough

Best cakes and scones I've had at a high tea so far... I also introduced my parents to clotted cream :)

Speakers' corner

Dad: "I was going to speak at Speakers' Corner, but there was a looong queue. Didn't have time to wait because I had to meet you."
Me: "That's ok Dad, I'll book you a slot for next weekend."

It was quite a surprise when we got out of high tea around 6pm, and Speakers' Corner at Hyde Park was still going strong. I've always wanted to hear the ranters :) Public speaking is not my best ability. In fact, I had to do a presentation last week to a whole bunch of HR people. I swear, I could hear crickets scratching at the end of it :P So I was impressed to see such a large crowd gather to hear what a total random stranger had to say.

That is... until I realised, I couldn't understand a word of what was being said :P Strangely, the ones drawing a crowd were speaking in Arabic. I asked someone for a translation, and was told, "This man is from Egypt. He is saying, Egypt is the best country. Better than all the other Arabic countries". Hrm. Fairly mundane topic, but I guess that would explain why there were a lot of Arabic men arguing with him. I was hoping for something a little more controversial, like about the conflicts in Iran or Iraq.

The only English speaker I could hear, was ranting about Jesus. What's new eh?

So, kinda disappointed by Speakers' Corner, but at least now I can mark it as "done" on my Rondon to-do list.

Heritage

One of the positive things that have come out of my parents' visit, is the tidbits of info I get fed about my family history. My grandma has two names. My grandma's brother had three wives, two of whom were jealous of my grandma. My grandpa's brother cheated the family with dealings on the chicken farm. My Dad sold eggs from the chicken farm. My Dad was born in a hut. My great-grandpa owned a small grocer shop but was stingy. Everything was lost during the war. Great-grandpa was an opium addict. My grandma pawned her jewellery to afford food for the family. My grandma caned anyone who slept in past 8am. My grandpa caned anyone who didn't do well at school.

Different times.

I love my parents, and I love having them here, and we joke lots (loudly, in Chinese, mainly about our bowel movements, the Pope, and the Queen). However, at the same time, they're driving me nuts :P NUTS, I tell you, NUTS. Yet, I look at them, and realise that so much of who I am comes from who they are, and how they've been brought up. So if you don't like anything about me, you know who to blame ;)

I think a lot about what sort of person my niece will grow up to be. Sadly, I don't think she'll get the same exposure to my culture and heritage. Not saying I'm an expert on all things oriental, if anything I feel like I've missed out on a lot. But at least I had a chance to experience some of it growing up - temple visits, ancestry worship, gods & goddesses 101, oriental festivals... It'll be interesting to see the next generation of my clan grow up anyway.

Different times.

Cheating

From this:
(Turnmills membership photo 2006)

To this:
(Simpsonize Me)

Hehehe... So ok, the original pic of me is a year old. I found myself adjusting and picking features until I looked like how I wanted to look, and not necessarily like how I look like right now *sigh* It's a little soul crushing that it's possible for me to look hotter in a 2D cartoon than in real life :P

Maybe I should add a barrel to my wardrobe...

Thanks Lil, for the Friday link!

Size queen

I don't get it. Pretty it may be, but do I really want to watch "two movies back-to-back" on a 2-inch screen? :/ I'm squinty enough as an oriental...

I'll stick to my 15.4 inch MBP display :P

Guess how much?

I hate having cravings. Especially expensive ones. Guess how much these 6 teeny weeny pieces of salmon and tuna sashimi set me back:

£10.30

YUP. 10+ squids. I couldn't help but convert to Aussie dollars. That's about AU$25. For AU$25, I could have a fcking feast at Makoto sushi train in Sydnery with my cuz. It'd be a lot better too. Don't get me wrong, Japan Centre's Toku restaurant is great. It's as close as I'm going to get to decent Jap without going one level up to fine dining. Only, it's so dang expensive for what you get. I also ordered Umeshu (5 squids for 50ml!) and green tea ice-cream (stingy 1 scoop given only). Total of bill would've been about 20 squids IF I didn't have some discount card stamps with me. I still ended up paying about 12 squids. Dang it. It really bothers me. I don't understand why good Japanese is so hard to find here. Gawd I miss Ichi-ban Boshi. MMmm, unagi zara... *lustful sigh*

MEN

Apparently, when guys are 20-something, all they can think about is sex. A short skirt and tights, that's all it takes. All they want to do is, have sex. So that's why it's ok for 20-something year old guys to cheat. Because at that age, guys just want to have sex. It doesn't mean anything when they cheat, cause it's _just_ sex. Then suddenly, when a guy hits 30-something, all they want is long term commitment. So cheating isn't ok anymore. One day it's fine to cheat, the next day it's against his principles.

MEN :P

It's NEVER ok to cheat!! IMHO :P Yer can look, but just make sure you know which beehive to get your honey from. Is that a bad analogy? :) I swear, the number of times I've had guys try and explain to me the whole "guys just want to get into your pants" mindset, and I still don't understand it. What's the big deal? Can't we just talk? :P Guys - you're sooo one dimensional sometimes! And demanding.

I can't remember what I was talking about one day with a couple of blokey mates, but the topic was enough to incense me to declare, "THAT'S IT. I'M DOING A SURVEY!"

Bush or no bush?

From bars and clubs, to Ibiza parties, to random drinks with random guys. Months of hard research - the answer is unanimous...

No bush.

What. Don't act surprised. YOU expected it all along. YOU can't fool me. I've had one guy tell me he'd turn away a hot chick if he found out she had bush!

There _is_ a (very) small contingent that will say bush. However, their logic behind it is that they don't want to feel like a paedophile :P

MEN :P

Reverting to childhood

6:25am (5 mins of snooze time left before my alarm goes off)
Dad: "Girlie, wake up"
Me: "Mmmffffmmm"
Dad: "Mum, you better wake Girlie up"
Mum kicks me
Me: "MMMMMMPPHFHFFFFF"
Dad: "Girlie, it's time to wake up!"
Me: "YES DAD"

I'm 7 years old again. It's time to wake up and get ready for school... At least this time round, I can avoid the yucky half-boiled egg slime for brekky :)

Daliborus

I think what I loved most about working for PwC Consulting, was the people I met. It definitely wasn't the work. It definitely wasn't the crap salary. It was the great people. One faithful night in Tampa, I couldn't sleep, so I did the usual - I baked. I baked a looooot of cakes when I was in Tampa. But this one was special. This one was a chocolate mud for Anna's birthday :) This one, won me Daliborus' eternal friendship *lol* Thus began my education on The Man Show, hippos versus elephants and rhinos, the joys of a good booty, and... erm, other stuff that can't be mentioned on my blog *lol*

Over the years, there are only a few left that I still see from the "good ol' days". And if I'm really lucky, I get a visit from one in Rondon :) If I'm REALLY REALLY lucky, I even get not one, but TWO jars of his Mum's homemade apricot jam! :D *drooool* Guess what I had for brekky this morning, Daliborus? ;)

M&D

A continental brekky at Le Pain

M&D flew in last night, and although I spent the first night on the sofa bed, Mum kept insisting I sleep in the same room. So here I am. I think the last time I slept in the same room as my parents, I was about 12 years old. I feel 12 again :)

Only this time, I'm prepared...

1 x pair foam earplugs!

My Dad's in denial and blames my Mum. The truth is, he's been snoring up a thunderstorm for the past few decades! As males get older, the snoring gets louder. Weird but undeniable truth of life. Chubby never use to snore when he was a puppy :P

It's funny being in Rondon with them. It doesn't matter that I'm 28 years old, I still want to do _everything_ right by them. I'm worried about what to feed them, what to show them, where to take them, whether my room's clean enough for them! I'm a slob. I'll admit it. I wallow in my own mess. Even now, the mess hasn't really been cleaned, it's just been shoved under the bed *grin* BUT, I did vacuum and mop AND, most hated chore of all - clean the toilet! No complaints from M&D about my cleanliness so far *phew*

I did try and broach the topic of my latest tattoo with my Dad.
Me: "Mum, did you tell Dad about my tattoo?"
(Yeah, I've been too chicken to tell my Dad. I was hoping my Mum would do it for me :P )
Mum: "No, but your brother started talking about it, and I gave him looks. So I think Dad knows, but he didn't ask."
Me: "Oh..."
*Later on*
Me: "Dad, erm, do you want to see my new tattoo?"
Dad: "YOU ARE COVERED WITH TATTOOS! DON'T KNOW WHY YOU GET THEM!"
Me: "It's only two!"
I've taken Dad's response as a sign of, "better not go there" :P

Time to test those earplugs out :)

Cowgirls

Hehehe...

Happy 0.375 year anniversary, U&W! ;)