Query - Is it better to give or receive?

Is it better to give or receive? The common adage holds that the blessed receive and well, the other lot give. But truly, is it that terrible to give?

Charming Chiangmai

I really love those alliterations that tour agencies always use to describe their touted destinations of choice. Alluring America. Romantic Rome. Enticing Europe. Tastefully Turkey.

The author regrets to inform readers that she did not take the new airbus A380. She was instead sitting in a SilkAir A320 that was dusty. The author then spent most of her next two and a half hours concentrating on trying not to sneeze in the aeroplane because people tended to stare in horror.

This is Centara Duangtawan, a very lovely hotel. And for someone who has had to endure the cubicle sized hotels of Hong Kong and Genting (which was also bloody missing the shampoo dispenser), this happens to be a godsend:

Look at that! A bath tub! And a sitting area with a very neat lamp!

For me, the nicest bits of the trip had to be Doi Suthep's Wat Prathap (Prathap Temple). Even though there were many tourists and devotees milling about, the temple retained its sense of tranquility and quiet. Though, with roughly 600 years behind it, Wat Prathap is probably capable of enduring more than intrepid explorers.

Prayer bells occasionally tinkling in the breeze, Temple cats have good lives and

More of Wat Prathap's dazzling golden roofs

The shopping opportunities are vast. Unfortunately, because I went to their cottage industries on my very first day, I got fleeced quite badly for a bangle which could have been gotten at a fraction of a price at the night market less than 50 metres from my hotel. In my own defence, I've never bargained before. And, if I am going to Thailand again, I solemnly swear that I will try to cut prices even further.

Pretty baubles

And this is actually the low season for tourists

A couple of tuk-tuk waiting for tourists to hop on

Then, there are also the neurotically white temples with white flowering shrubbery and white fish in the white stone lined ponds still under construction even after twelve years, hot springs that smell of sulphur, crazily speeding tour vans, rice sticks and border towns to lure one on to the next location...

Okay, I take it back

This is just to say, I take back what I said about Angels and Demons (the movie)and how it is actually waaay better than I anticipated. I suspect however that my enjoying the movie has also to do with how long it has been since I've read the novel and I was kept in suspension for the film because I'd forgotten the plot. That, and how I now know who Bernini is and Ewan McGregor as the Camerlengo also helped.

Ubin

Thence up he flew, and on the Tree of Life,

The middle Tree and highest there that grew,

Sat like a Cormorant; yet not true Life

Thereby regaind, but sat devising Death

To them who liv'd

Ubin, or; The Kampung Paradise in Singapore that You Need a Boat to Get To.

One of the last remaining pockets of Singapore that remain embalmed in a past era. The houses are made of wood, there are no street lights (or not much), there are a lot of trees and telephone wires half rusted and half coated with moss. Getting on the boat is like getting on a time machine. You hop on from a shiny new terminal on one side and get off in what physically looks like backwater Malaysia, only you don't need a passport to get there.

Time moves more slowly there in more ways than one.

Some facts for the intrepid explorer: A small island roughly 10km sq off the north-east coast of Singapore. A small agricultural outpost of sorts, it was also at one point in time, a granite quarry. Both the farming and mining have subsided, and if not for the abandoned prawn ponds still dotting the landscape and the unmistakable red, upturned soil and granite boulders lying around, the island seems to have remained mostly undisturbed.

This is the point where I'm supposed to say something nice, like, maybe, an ode to the blue water, but happily, I am not going to try and embarrass myself.

Like any place of seeming unearthly beauty, Pulau Ubin is also a sinister death-trap. Cycling accidents including those of the fatal variety seem to abound. Seeing as there are no ambulances on the island nor first aid boxes at every corner, this is not very surprising. Also, given that the nearest entrance to Chek Jawa is a jungle trail that consists of bumpy, uneven and slippery slopes, one must be thankful for small miracles, such as everyone getting home unscathed. I myself got mud splashed, bird shit on the back of my shirt and what looked like paint and mud on both my elbows, and grease and scratches on knees.

That is actually trivial, but I wanted to complain about the bird shit.

The main point about Ubin these days do not however, seem very far from its previous purpose of mining and farming. Chek Jawa is an ecological haven. In one day, my family spotted 4 hornbills in two different locations, or maybe 8 if they happen to be different birds each time, a colourful pink and green pigeon, several noisy birds with fan-like tails, swallows, a waterhen, loads of tiny crabs and mudskippers, two schools of mud coloured fish and the cormorants.

The ghost of a jellyfish

Anthracoceros albirostris aka Oriental Pied Hornbill

This is not Chek Jawa. This is only a photograph

You can't really see the barnacles on the rocks in the picture, but there are actually a lot of them sticking on every available surface and the water is surprisingly clear. I can readily believe that there are starfish and sea slugs hiding around here. A pity that we missed the low tide.

Already, I want to go back there. And perhaps I will, another time, when the tide is low, and there is the scent of sea grass in the wind.

Hello nice weather

Hello nice weather. Hello sharp tang of rain and ice cold wind. Hello soothing thunder of raindrops.

Poster Talk: Blood: The Last Vampire

Oooh. Whee. Another vampire movie.

First of all. This is very very loosely based on a Production I.G. animation of the same title. The title of which is Blood: The Last Vampire. First up, this poster does not suck. It is very difficult nowadays to make a sucky poster, as backed by the producers of Crouching Tiger and Hero would ensure that the publicity would at least do the film justice. This is clear from the way my sister was jubilant that there was a life-action adaption of the anime version. When I complained that the poster looked dubious and B-movie-ish, she'd been excitedly raving about it, mostly because of the trailer (which was not bad) and because she had a lot of time to fangirl over the oversized poster in dim lighting at the cinema in AMK. When I, in my dimwitted way (which is what I sound like about any anime that my sister has watched and I haven't) that she has funny eyes my sister cheerfully said that her eyes glowed red because the main character happened to be half vampire. Ookay. Only the poster girl seems to have eyes of a funny silver colour like the evil mutant person whose name I can't remember from the 2nd installment of the X-Men series.

Prior to watching the film, most of the conversation about the same title seemed to be about two different things.

So, I say. Are you sure this is based on Blood+ and the anime film version?

Sis: Yes!

Me: Uh. I thought she had short hair. She's got pigtails in the trailer you know?

Sis: She did in the anime also! But she uses only one sword. The poster (frustrated sigh) shows her with two.

Me: Umm. And is her mother the evil white vampire?

Sis: No! What are you talking about?

Me: But it looked that way in the trailer...

For the record. She does only have one sword in the film, and a very neat way of extracting said kantana from the long container she hides it in. The Powers that Be knows why the publicity shows two in some of them.

But onward to the review proper. Ignoring the signs that this movie was made on a lower budget than most Hollywood blockbuster season flicks, it was an okay watch. There is plenty of hacking and slashing and rooftop action sequences for those who like that kind of thing and well, pretty much nothing else for everyone who doesn't. The plot is thin. The I am your mother schtick is as old as Star Wars (original series). My sister bemoaned how nobody ever does these things nowadays, but they unfortunately did... so yeah. I have mercifullly, not watched the animated version, so I can forgive that a cinematic experience like this usually calls for some semblance of plot and character growth which may have been unnecessary in a shorter animated version. Also, once again, ignoring some of the not so well shot action bits, the movie was quite enjoyable in an average sort of way. I only wish there were more scenes of Onigen (aka boss villain). She is utterly smug and cool in an evil vampire way and about the only thing with class apart from Saya (main character) on screen. I however wish she used Japanese instead of Engrish, as the latter sounded quite terrible. Still, as proof of the coolness of the actress, she still conveyed the evil sexiness of the character in spite of her awkward prounciation, and that is always difficult to execute at best.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

I suggest Terminator Salvation. If you're going to go in blind to a series, watch that instead. I think it was much better. Even with the CGI Arnie in the buff.

Picture sourced from here.

Why I make one hell of a tutor

Today.
Me shouting at kid.

K, who moves his tuition bag to the front of class says solemnly, "Teacher. I feel sorry for you."

My mind whirls. Eh?

K continues on earnestly, "Because you keep having to scold N."

Am I being pitied? By my student?

In a better frame of mind, I might have asked him why he didn't feel sorry for N instead, who was after all, the one being scolded.

The Awwww Factor

A couple of days ago, I was at the Pet Safari with mum and sis oogling the hamsters and puppies. Suffice to say, it took all my powers to resist the very squeal worthy adorableness of the puppies on sale. Most of them were about 3 months old and very very. very appealing. So much so that I had to tell myself, "You are a cat person! You. Are. A. Cat. Person!" This silent mantra to the self was promptly forgotten the minute two of the Schnauzer puppies got into a mini tussle and I spotted this very dignified looking Japanese Spitz puppy in the glass enclosure* below them. There was also this Shih Tzu puppy that had its tail in its food dish and was sniffing said tail in a puzzled manner. Heh. And so we three oohed and ahhed at the puppies for goodness knows how long and while neither my mum or sis displayed any outward anguish at struggling against their inner cat nature, that is, if they have one. I was telling myself fiercely that these were all Just Evil Distractions That Are Too Cute For Their Own Good. The part of my brain that wasn't simulataneously ooogling them happily while mentally screaming in stress decided that I ought to just enjoy the cuteness of puppies on the basis of themselves and not any initial prejudice I might have been harbouring. And so that was what I did.

I still want a cat if I ever get my own abode. That doesn't change one bit. I adore cats for reasons that do not, as I realise while drafting this post a few days ago, pertain to the cuteness/adorableness/puppiness of them (the awww factor, you can call it), but for a certain...cattiness about them. There isn't a way to put it other than that cats tug at different heart strings for me.

*You will have to pardon the authoress. She is clearly in denial that this glass enclosure is in fact a cage.