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bali report.

MY TRIP TO BALI 2006

day one
arrive and checked in pretty hotel.
distance walked : 4 miles.
stuff bought : one dress and old school bottle of coke.
areas covered : seminyak to legian, the beachside route.
note : was feeling highly adventourous cause we had no idea where we were really going. bali was hot.

we were obviously high on something.

day two
full day tour by tour agent.
activities (in sequence) : barong dance, sightseeing, spa.
transport : minivan.
areas covered : tanjung benoa, turtle island, (celuk, mas, batubulan) ubud, jimbaran, kuta town.
highlight of day : full balinese massage and spa treatment worth RM100 at a swanky bali spa.
numbers of animals touched : 3 leatherback turtles, 1 humongous bird, 1 owl, 1 monitor lizard, 1 boa constrictor.
note : bali was still hot.
postcard sent home : 1

barong dance

edgar, the baby turtle

day three
full day tour by tour agent.
activities (in sequence) : sightseeing, light shopping, sunset gazing.
transport : minivan
areas covered : taman ayun in mengwi, ulun danu in bedugul, tanah lot, kuta-legian.
great discovery of the day : the ultimate awesomeness of teh botol sosro.
phobias : one (altophobia on top of the mengwi bell tower)
most memorable line : "if the snake eats you? dude, that would have to be one ambitious snake to want to eat you. nothing is that ambitious," to shiren as a huge boa slithered pass her to get to its getaway mini cooper parked outside the tanah lot temple.
day downer : when the magical tanah lot sunset was a no-show.
stuff bought : mirrors, suncathers, windchimes.
recurring joke : 1, cookie monster and her edible husband. 2, terrible touristy stuff to wear.
postcard sent home : 1
note : bali was freaking hot.

mengwi
tanah lot temple

ulun danu.

floating temple, ulun danu

view from our lunch table

sunset at tanah lot

day four
customized tour.
transport : chartered taxi that comes with its own manic driver.
areas covered : kertagosa, pura besakih, tirta empul at tampak siring, kemulu for goa gajah, seminyak, kuta-legian.
teh botol consumed : 2.
great discovery of the day : kick-ass nasi padang shop 1 and half hour hike from the hotel.
postcards sent home : 1.
things learnt from day's trip : 1, stuff that would take you to hell. 2, what happens once you're in hell. 3, why you wouldn't want to go to hell.
distance walked : 3 km (1 km uphill power-walk in besakih)
number of communal sarongs worn to cover legs : 3.
extracurricular activities : hot hunks ogling while pretending to watch sunset at the beach.
note : bali was still hot.

kertagosa 'how to get to heaven' guide.

shiren at besakih.

lake bratan, en route to kemulu.

day five
shopping
activities : shopping.
areas covered : sukawati shopping markets. kuta-legian.
stuff bought : a whole effing trunkful.
teh botol consumed : 1.
transport : previous day's taxi with the same lunatic driver.
dent in bank account : collosal.
note : bali. hot. nuff said

no shopping pictures. sorry.

day six
more shopping. lazing around the pool.
areas covered : kumbasari market at denpasar. kuta-legian.
stuff bought : semi trunkful of stuff at kumbasari, tshirt galore at the matahari store in kuta.
dilemma of the day : bringing all the stuff we bought home.
teh botol consumed : 3.
cute hunk ogled: 1 (dubbed 'the everywhere guy' complete with six packs and well-toned biceps. swoon)
note : oh yes, bali was just as hot.

me doing 'lazing' extremely well.

i just ran outta good pictures.

day seven
home.
most memorable line of the day : "i never stress," from obnoxiously loud guy to his unfortunate breakfast table neighbour as they were loudly discussing the finer points of living a pointless life.
note : bali was still awesomely hot.

im outta here

where you'd be tomorrow..

where I'll be..

today is..

..the kind of day you wake up holding your head and desperately wish for the brass band in your head to go away. (hungover from the alcohol-free festivities last night)

..the kind of day you're considering taking a day off from work so that you could go back to sleep and not take a bath. (but i cant cause i've finished all my days off for my trip to bali)

..the kind of day that you want to dress all in black for office. (but only my blue top didnt require ironing so im wearing it instead of my mourning garbs)

..the kind of day that regardless what time you leave home, you'd still be stuck in traffic and be 20 minutes late to work.

..the kind of day that you feel so disjointed and removed from the rest of the world.

..the kind of day all you feel like doing is stare at your monitor and stare at you in-tray and stare at your new emails with no concious will to do anything.

..the kind of day that you want to listen only to the slower U2 songs on loop. (bono is king)

..the kind of day when you look in disgust at the exclaimation mark on the left hand corner of your keyboard. (cause nothing-exclaimation-marked could be used to describe anything-you right now)

..the kind of day when you need take out your emergency giant bar of toblerone white chocolate.

..the kind of day that even putting on lip balm requires effort and you realised you overdued for a mani/pedicure and a hair trim and your skin is dry. (thank goodness i have no client to meet today)

..the kind of day that the only text messages you received since morning is a bank notification and a request for a RM300 loan from an obscure friend. (fuck off, both of you. just fuck the hell off)

..the kind of day you call MONDAY bloody MONDAY. aah, bugger.

idiot

i have an idiot for a sister.
everyday i travel to and from work with this idiot.
today, the idiot decided she wants to go to the mall after office hours.
eventhough i hate shopping with her, i told her i'd tag along.
just now i called idiot to tell her i left my phone at home.
she told me she is not taking me with her to the mall cause fetching me from my office is out of her way to the mall.
i said, tough.
she said i should take the bus to her office and go to the mall from there.
i told her that is crazy cause buses here are swamped after work hours.
she then told me to wait at the office until after she finish shopping, then she'd come and fetch me.
i called abah and told him whats going on.
he told me to tell her to fetch me and that's it.
i told her that.
she said, she'd see first.

i hate idiot.
she's such a retard.

6 movies, 2 days, 1 me.

Jarhead
Based on former Marine Anthony Swofford's best-selling 2003 book about his pre-Desert Storm experiences in Saudi Arabia and about his experiences fighting in Kuwait: end quote.

Brilliant movie. Utterly, beautifully, simply brilliant. Watching this movie, you forget all about who's acting (Gyllenhaal and Foxx were the most recognizable. Kudos.) The movie is so realistic, there's nothing to not to like. Beautiful camera works. Fantastic sequencing. It's all so believable. This is a movie that would make you laugh and observe and cringe and educate. This is a movie, so effective in telling it's story, that would make you think. The best thing I could say about this movie is that: it is an original. The director managed to put aside all political persuasion (it is about the oil war in the Middle East) and presents merely the very sentiments of war. This movie emotes. The futility, the cluelessness, the injustice, the treasures, the hopelessness, the frustration, the truth, the ugly, the stupidity, the manipulation, the human.
Go watch. Even if war movies is not your cup of half decaf, vanilla soy milk, dry latte; go watch. I'm so serious.

The Marine
Starring John Cena, the K-Fed of wrestling minus the trailer park wife. That on its own should have told you all you can expect from this sorry piece of crap. Remember Hulk Hogan's movie career? What movie career? Exactly.
But after The Rock, I was foolishly inflicted by temporary lapse of optimism. And thinking that since Cena is the most popular WWE champion after The Rock, I said, why not?
Thus I observed the total wreckage that is The Marine. A grisly attempt at recreating the glory days when Van Damme and Seagal was king, I spent most of the time shuddering at the weak plot line and lame dialogs to snorting at the cliche action sequence and pathetic, pathetic ending.
Cena is a hotshot marine, fresh from protecting Bush's investment in Iraq. Came home to a pretty, blond wife-bot. They are happy. Cena would be happier if he has a job. He messed up first day of work and got fired for being a good guy. Cruel world. Wife-bot and Cena decided to take a break (from what?) and stumbled across the merry band of ruthless, merciless but always ready with a witty one-liner, diamond thieves. In true desperate attempt to establish a plot (or to find a reason for Cena to document his wrestling moves and take off his clothes) wife-bot got stolen by baddies, Cena goes in hot pursuit; utilising all the skills he learnt from being a marine, how fortunate.
I was a comatosed (mutant lobster) zombie 5minutes into this horror spawn but prevailed so that I could personally deliver a precise, concise report to my little brother about how his (my brother's) wrestling idol inaugural acting foray is : He sucked dude, big time. He effing sucked. Woot.
Verdict: Oscar bait, this. Cena is the next James Dean, you mark my word.

Click

I was severely Walken-deprived. Last I saw him was in Stepford Wives, where he was most ultimately awesome as usual. Click is an acceptable source to end my Walken drought. For the time being. I enjoyed this movie. Sandler is coming back from his 'what the fuck is he doing?' aberration for doing Spanglish. He's not Happy Gilmore-Billy Madison back back, but at least he's at the right wing of the airport.
101 guide to watching a Sandler: disarm your brain. Click was a light-brained-hearted affair for me. I watch, I was entertained, I moved on. Do not expect any grey matter revelation from this movie. It's decently funny and amusing, at the same time doing it's community service through the moral of the story.
Click is about Sandler who was given an universal remote control by the most excellent Walken, ended up missing most of his life because he fast forwarded all the bad things he rather avoid (which at the end appeared to be the good things instead) It's an original Sandler movie, meaning that it has a) Sandler being childishly mean to obnoxious little 5 year olds b) Sandler being a well-meaning but misguided family man. Loving to his kids and parents. c) Sandler is normal but surrounded by some weird shits of friends/employer/employees d) Sandler scoring the hot cicadas (lush locks Kate Bekingsale plays wife in Click. Smoking) e) a happy ending.
The cast also includes David 'The Hoff' Hasselhoff, Rachel 'SNL' Dratch, Harry 'Fonzy' Winkler and Sean 'Frodo's Sam' Astin. Solid comedy cast, made the movie more watchable, methinks.
Made me realised how OLD I am though, the couple has 2 kids and their theme song is Linger by the Cranberries. I sang that song in high school, I mean, it cant be an oldie already. Surely.
The moral of the movie : Watch the movie and don't forget to love and cherish your family afterwards. Or shag a toy duck. Whichever.

note : My all time Walken favorites to recommend (with my out of 10 ratings). The Prophecy (10), True Romance(9), Biloxi Blues(9), Pulp Fiction(7), The Deer Hunter(8) and The Rundown (6). And of course, the Fat Boy Slim vid clip (10).

Underworld Revolution
I barely watched the first installment, I'm glad to say the same about the second. I don't like this movie because

1. Bekingsale was in a similar, suckier movie not too long ago. I cant be bothered to remember the title, Wolverine was in it. They both blow.
2. No hot guys. Nope, Michael didn't cut it. He wasn't even hypothermically warm.
3. The old, great, original Vampire and Lycan wasn't all that. Even their sire was a pussy. Take away the awe factor of the old families in vampire slash werewolf movies and all you have left is mutant pets on a rampage stories.
4. The final fight scene was not long enough, not gory enough, not CGI-ed enough, not multi-martial arted enough, not violent, not anything enough.
   
5. There was zero chemistry between the couple. They could have been siblings. So if you're into incest, which I'm not.

But I especially love the part where Michael kills the lycans by ripping their jaws off. Extremely graphic. Well done. And how hot is Kate's body in vinyl? Scorching. Her hair is a big, boring, tangled no-no but awesome body.

John Tucker Must Die
Oh yes. I'm very indiscriminate in my movie options. Remember all the high school flicks: She's All That, 10 Things, American Pie, the more recent Mean Girls, etc etc - all the movies you swore you don't watch but you could sing along to their theme songs lyrics? Yeah, those. Here's another.
Starring Jesse Metcalf (mostly shirtless, how suprising), Ashanti, Sophie Bush and some other less known actors (less known for a reason, apparently).
Plot: Popular guy cheats on high school theme-Barbies, Barbies get together to get even, justice is served. Insert several random teen movies cliches (e.g. unpopular girl make-over into Glam Queen, creepy, misunderstood, artsy but diggable 'other boy' for girl to fall in love later, major high school sports event, most popular boy effortlessly to fall in love with the girl as soon as she got made-over, synchronized dance performance, no real life responsibility like homework or curfew or classes to attend, plan backfiring when girl falls in love with the inner side of boy she discovers, big party slash prom scene climax). Yawn.
I cant stop thinking that for a high school movie, the collective age of the main casts is like, 310 years old. Boring and lame. No suprise there. Oh, Jenna Jameson also stars, she's an android, right?

V for Vandetta.
Its shocking how severely outdated I am in joining the rest of the free world in watching this great movie. I absolutely adore this movie. V cooking in the red, frilly apron is priceless. Oh my lord Elrond of Rivendell, you had me at "Mister Anderson," .. now you have me forever.
Trivia : The forehead space between V and Evey (and me) amounts to the square meters of Amazon jungle being destroyed annually by illegal logging. It's true. Check it out.

so what?

I have this ongoing game with some of my buddies. We would ask rhetorical questions to each other, hoping to entertain ourselves (oh yes, we are exciting people like that :P) questions like, 'if you found your boyfriend in bed with Brad Pitt, would you think you could pass the photo op?' (hell no, could you get Maddox too?) or nonsensical stuff like 'if your bicycle could paddle backwards, do you think you'd exercise more?' (probably not)

so last night was an especially heated discussion answering the age-old question: what would you save first if your house is on fire?

1. My story books.
2. All my earrings.
3. The scrabble and boggle set.
4. My new BS lipstick.
5. My LOTR extended version DVD collection.

I'm sure my family can save themselves and the house pet are instinctual survivors. Everything else is replaceable, surely. I clearly would save the most important things that are essence of my being. And I have hopes of of making the scrabble/boggle set hereditary.

What?
Selfish, me?
No way.
Frightening shallow perhaps.
Never selfish.
You just have no idea how hard it is for me to find that very shade of lipstick.
snort.