Cafebiz @ Trader's Hotel

Well, having read some reviews on this restaurant (one said it had Alaskan Crab), we went down to have a post-christmas dinner.

SADLY, there was no alaskan crab for the buffet dinner -.- The spread was nothing much, very limited actually, and the cost was $52++.

First up, my first dish, herbal chicken soup.



Next dish was cold dish - Oyster and Lobster (tiny)



I walked a few rounds and decided on Lasagne and a crystal dumpling.



Chun took a prawn which was a vegetarian one, but she thought it was a real one =p



I then picked some random stuff (clockwise from top): Baked Salmon, Beef, Ham, Potato



Next up, she wanted some bread, so I toasted some Garlic Bread. Not too bad.



A roving chef came to offer some lamb.



After that, it was time for dessert. Yes, I know, I'm a small eater even though I'm fat.



Had a crunchy thing from the chocolate fondue, and a slice of blackforest cake. Also a cup of chocolate mousse. Chun had fruits w/ fondue, mango pudding, chocolate mousse, a small cube of cake, and another mousey looking dessert O.o



All in, not a shabby meal. However, pales in comparison with other high end buffets. Limited selection and average culinary. Not recommended =\

After that, we happened onto a mini foam party. Heh. Lotsa grownups and kids getting foamed outside Tanglin Mall.



Wow. Posting pictures is so slow. How do you guys do it??

Full set of pictures at Flickr because I have no idea how to link flickr photos to here =(

Hitman

So I caught this nifty movie last night. Starring Timothy Olyphant as Agent 47 and Olga Kurylenko as Nika Boronina (gratituous nude scene supplier)

Agent 47 is a hitman from birth, trained to be ruthless, efficient, and very deadly by a mysterious organisation cryptically known as the Organisation. He is given a contract to take out Belicoff, the Russian presidential candidate, but here's the twist; the contract was given by Belicoff himself.

47 takes out the guy, but was given another task to take out Nika, who is a supposed witness. He subsequently learns that he was lied to. Nika is not a witness, nor did he kill the real Belicoff.

He kidnaps Nika for her own safety, thus giving way to some delicious topless scenes of her in the hotel room, and he sets about finding his way to why he was double-crossed by his organisation, and also to complete his contract of killing Belicoff.

Lots of action scenes, with a generous smattering of Nika topless, or braless.

Excellent movie =D

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Pirates of the Carribean - Welcome to Singapore

Well, this movie was pretty good, despite comments to the contrary.

My comments and interpretation of the movie:

Main Cast
Jack Sparrow – Wants to live forever, and to kinda get a life back too
Will Turner – Wants to save his father, Bill Turner, and also get together with Keira
Elizabeth Swan – Wants to rescue Jack for her “betrayal” in Part 2, but also get together with Orlando
Calypso (witchie chick who brought Barbossa back to life) – Wants to get together with Davy Jones, maybe. But really just wants to be released from her human body.
Barbossa – Wants to get back his ship, Black Pearl, and later to release Calypso
Beckett – Wants the secret of the pieces of eight, kill Jack Sparrow, and generally become ruler of the seas

Now that we’ve settled their main aims, next would be the bare facts the movie presents:

1) Davy Jones + Calypso = Couple
2) Elizabeth Swan – loves Will, but hides the fact that she “betrayed” Jack in the previous episode
3) Will Tuner – loves Elizabeth, but hides the fact that he wants to free his father, and that he’s willing to do anything to save his father and her.
4) In previous episode, it is established that the evil Beckett has gained possession of Davy Jones’ heart, and thus controls him. The extent of the control is shown when Davy Jones does the bidding of the EIC and attacks other pirate ships. Davy Jones even kills his pet Kraken (mainly to keep Beckett safe).
5) Whoever kills Davy Jones takes his place, and gains eternal life at the cost of having to be the captain of the Flying Dutchman
6) The Flying Dutchman is bound to ferry souls from the living to the dead, but Davy Jones kinda forfeited this job after being “put aeroplane” by Calypso some 10 years ago. The reason for her missing the 1 day meet up was that she was female and fickle.

Main Summary

Elizabeth, Will, Barbossa and Calypso travel to Singapore to meet with Sao Feng. Action Scene ensues. Aim: to find the map to World’s End, to find and rescue Jack. Each have their own agenda as to finding Jack. A long list of betrayal soon follows:

* Will colludes with Sao Feng (who has a personal vendetta against Jack) to hand over Jack to him.
* Sao Feng colludes with East India Company to gain possession of Black Pearl and Jack
* East India Company “captures” everyone
* Jack colludes with East India Company to (I have no idea what goes on in his mind)
* Calypso colludes with Barbossa to get freed

The scene before Jack is rescued is especially interesting, as it presents a surreal (think Matrix) impression of World’s End, and the crabs which appear are a funny touch. Of course, later it is shown that the crabs are the work of Calypso.

They later travel to Shipwreck Cove where all the pirate lords gather (to discuss the menace East India Company is becoming). Incidentally, these pirate lords are the ones who bound Calypso to her human form a long time ago, and it is through their “pieces of eight” which bind her, and can free her.

After some interesting dialogue and action, Elizabeth is “crowned” as King of Pirates, whereupon she commands all to fight with the EIC. Jack takes it into his mind to kill Davy Jones, to become the captain of Flying Dutchman, and also meets his father played by Keith Richards.

They then have another long action scene where Davy Jones kills Will, and Jack helps Will to “kill” Davy, granting him a second chance at life, somewhat, and Will becomes the new captain of Flying Dutchman.

They defeat the EIC and end of story.

Oh, do remember to stay till the end, there’s supposed to be an extra bonus scene.

Interesting Quotes from the movie

[Quote] One funny quote not listed in the site above goes something like this:

[After the lil pirates realise the pieces of eight aren't REALLY silver, but tiny bits of personal items worn on various pirate lords]

A: So why are they called pieces of eight when they're not?
B: Well, it's like this. Them pirate lords were skint in the early days, and it wouldn't do to call them "Random pieces of things worn about the body"

Well, it was something like that.

Would you be there? - Redwan Ali

If I were blue, would you be there for me,
And whisper in my ears that's ok.
Would you stand by me, let me hold you tight,
And say you love me one more time.

If I feel good, would you slow dance with me,
And touch my lips with tender loving care,
Would you die for me, would you run with me,
And never look back..

Would you be there to love, to be with me?
Would you swear that your love is always true?
Would you say that you'll always be the one,
to take my breath away?

Would you be there to love, to be with me?
Would you swear that your love is always true?
Would you say that you'll always be the one,
to take my breath away?

Would you be there..

Apparently the only "copy" of the song is available on YouTube only. Darned Mediacorp hasn't got the hint to release the song for sale or something. =D Check out the number of views. Divide by 20 should be the number of people who would buy the song.

Would you be there? - Redwan Ali

Of Taxi Drivers and Racism

I know this post is going to get people pissed off, but considering this is the first post I'm ever going to make, I don't really care. Anyway, I take taxis pretty often, and I have some pretty funny conversations with taxi drivers.

In the first place, I'm not sure why taxi drivers love talking to me, but perhaps it's the book I'm carrying, or the tired look on my face that says I don't want to talk..

ANYWAY.

I took this cab the other day, and the first thing the indian cab driver asked me was, "Does Army allow people to dye hair nowadays?" He then followed it up with a statement, "That ugly malay guy outside the guard room is having dyed hair! I'm not sure how good he thinks it makes him look, but he's really ugly"

He was so riled up about the dyed hair and continued to rant about it for a few more minutes. Until a while later, I realised he wasn't upset about the dyed hair per se, but he just didn't like Malays in general. Not Muslims, but Malays. Because he was an Indian-Muslim, as he later told me.

Now, that pretty much confused me. Wouldn't a Muslim meet many Malays? Especially during Mosque prayer services? All the same, he didn't like any of them. His entire life (so he told me), he had only 2 good Malay friends, and one was already dead or something like that.

He then went on to complain to me about how Malays were stupid etc etc. It was seriously funny listening to him complain about a race he obviously spent quite a bit of time around with. He even told me how he encouraged his son to continue his racist legacy and that his son should not mix with Malays.

So that ends the Indian-Anti-Malay cab driver story.

The other day, I took a cab again, this time, I was on a cab driven by a Malay (Muslim). This time, the nice taxi driver told me about how much he disliked Filipinos. He first made conversation by asking how long I was in the Army (I was in uniform), and then proceeded to went on to regale me with anecdotes about Filipino fares (not the money - the people who board his cab).

He told me about how loudly they talk on the cab (shouting!), and about how they don't know where they want to go, but insist that they give directions. He also commented about how proud they were to work in Singapore. He then told me about this Filipino who wanted to go to Tuas, but he (the taxi driver) didn't know the directions, so the Filipino said he would give the directions. But as they were nearing, the guy was on the phone, and he tried to talk to him, and the Filipino was upset and asked him "You taxi driver, you don't know how to go meh?" or something like that.

ANYWAY.

The point he made was that he really disliked taking them as fares, and for those "suspected" Filipinos, he would just stop, wind down the window, and ask for the destination. Once realising that he was speaking to a Filipino, he'd pretend he didn't know how to go, and drive off.

This ride made me amused because of the previous incident. It appears that these 2 seem to dislike a whole race of people, and not a character type as would be more logical.

I sure hope I never meet one who hates Chinese one day. =\