Movie Review: Ip Man (2008)

After a few recommendations from my VIP friends, I finally caught this movie today and I have to agree it was quite a well-made movie. It's well-measured between fight scenes and acting and although Donnie Yen still can't really have much acting chops on his facial expressions nor body language, he has competently filled the shoes of Ip Man during those fight scenes. Fortunately for the movie as well, the supporting cast did a good job with their acting to balance the gaps.

The movie showed the middle-aged life of the grandmaster of Wing Chun on his humility of his talent and skills, passion and discretion for the rest of the Chinese martial arts circle in Foshan, his responsibility as a family man and his patriotism for China during the Sino-Japan war after the Marco Polo Bridge incident.

The fight scenes were beautifully-executed and realistically-sequenced so that they did not look exaggerated and overwhelming to the viewers' senses. I thought Ip Man was one of the most realistic and sincere kung-fu movies made in the recent five years and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

The movie is still available so do catch it if you have a couple of hours and a good curiosity to know the difference between fist-fights/brawls and genuine martial arts and the people behind those categories.

End of Day Post 27 Dec 2008 Saturday

0930hrs: Woke up aching all over - I had pushed myself pretty hard at the gymnasium yesterday so I am suffering the consequences before I reap the rewards of exercise. Hahaha...

1030hrs: Breakfast of one egg and one plain roti prata, one small char siew bun and one glass of orange juice.

1130hrs: Visited The Crispy Apple at her workplace at Level 2 Bugis Street. She is currently working there whilst waiting for her beautician course to start and she is still keen on performing. Glad she is still looking fine and still having to passion to sing. Now that she has finished learning to how use her falsetto, I'll be looking forward to another singing session with her.

1200hrs: Headed off to Bugis Junction and found my ideal organizer diary at the stationery shop at level 3. It's a cheep cheep $9.10 and it will be accompanying my work throughout the year 2009.

1330hrs: Ate minced pork and mushroom noodles for lunch and bought a nice chocolate cake for my mother because today is her Chinese Lunar Year birthday and I know she likes to eat cakes.

1430hrs: Happily savouring the chocolate cake with my mother. It's not too sweet and the cream was deliciously light. Yummy. Glad I made my mother happy for all it's worth.

1500hrs: Busy preparing notes for my work and took an afternoon nap because I was still aching all over.

1700hrs: Ah...much more rested and got myself ready for dinner treat. My mother wanted to eat Western Fish and Chips so my parents and I headed out straight for that. Dinner was taken really slow because it was a nice evening at that place and not too crowded for our liking.

1900hrs: Reached home and started surfing the Internet and thinking of new ways to make my blog more functional as well as better-looking.

Heh, it's been quite a while since I wrote such end-of-the-day blog posts in this relatively information-based blog. A light Saturday after all those Christmas celebrations. Hmm..New Year Day is coming again in a few days' time though.

I heard Ip Man movie is quite good so I may want to catch it during the weekdays. Let's see how things go.

Christmas Celebrations 2008 New Updates

Here's most of the food on the table at the Married Soldier's house gathering on Christmas Eve. My fingers weren't steady so the photograph was blurred but there were cheese-filled sausages, macaroni soup, mashed potato, fried vegetables, chicken fillets, spaghetti and mushroom pizza. Dessert was a chocolate log cake and drinks were Jacob's Creek red wine. A much clearer shot taken whilst the table was being set. After dinner, we played a card game called Manager Material where we were supposed to fight off corporate projects cards with excuses cards on our hands. The game was fun because we were trying to prevent 30 project points from accumulating on our hands and yet sabotage the other players' chances by stacking recognition cards so that the players could not escape from the project cards through their excuses. In the end, The Married Soldier was defeated because of the conspiracy between The Changed Man and myself. The girls were more interested in the clothes featured in variety show then though. Hahaha.

After the card game, the hosts wanted to watch Little Nonya and we obliged to finish the episode before continuing with more drinks and another movie "The Family Stone". It's been so long since we watched a TV series together and we were interjecting throughout the show on who are the villians and how Yueniang was in despair for causing Yuzhu to be raped during her attempted elopement.

I opted to stay over because it was already near midnight by the time the gathering ended. A quick shower later, The Married Soldier and myself stayed up till 2am because he wanted me to watch him play his Fallout 3 game. His style of playing was so different from mine - whilst I preferred subtler sniper tactics, he would charge into the fray with his mini-gun. We finished clearing a few maps before the game hung on the computer and that decided our online adventure was over for that night.

The next morning, I woke up with a mild hangover from too much red wine - more than 3 glasses and by 11am on Christmas Day, I bade farewell and headed home because I still had a movie appointment with the Busy Bee. We met up at Orchard Cineleisure for the movie "Australia" at around 4.20pm and we bought the evening tickets as the nearby showtimes were almost sold out so we did not want sub-par seats for a supposedly good movie.

After getting the tickets, we hung out at Starbucks to see and to be seen with iced Eary Grey tea and ice-blended Frappucino. We were lucky enough to grab the large couch to enjoy our drinks and The Busy Bee showed me her new handphone and we played some penguin games on it before heading down to Takashimaya basement to grab some finger food just before we catch the movie itself.

"Australia" was one long movie worth over 160 minutes but it was quite a movie - a comprehensive, spell-bound mix of mysterious Aboriginals, hard-talking Whites, deep racism, dark politics, shady business throat-cutting, awe-inspiring wildlife, tough outback lifestyles, rowdy bar brawls, majestic natural sceneries, heroic sacrifices, passionate romance and even brutal war scenes.

Nicole Kidman was at her finest again portraying the character Lady Ashley and Hugh Jackman was convincingly set as the hard and gruff character called "The Drover". Their chemistry sizzled and captured my imagination of how beautiful the town of Darwin and the cattle stations' outback lifestyles were. It's definitely one of the most memorable and enjoyable movies to catch before 2008 concludes. I loved one particular line from Hugh Jackman in the movie, which goes something like:

Property, money, luggage, people - all of these mean nothing because ultimately, you will lose them. What's left is probably a story.

This was taken inside Paragon and it was a very beautiful series of Christmas decorations. Ballerinas dancing in a shower of blue Christmas hanging lights looked fabulous. This was taken on our way to the Takashimaya basement - a Christmas tree made up of many, many teddy bears. This was Central Point's Christmas decorations. There wasn't much themes to speak of but the sheer number of lights gave the surreal feeling of an alternative daylight in the night. Everyone was illuminated slightly bluish as they walked below those hundreds of thousands of lights. This was taken on our way to Raffles City - we walked all the way from Orchard Cineleisure to Raffles City because the Busy Bee felt like taking a stroll instead of hustling on a crowded MRT train along the main Orchard Road. We parted company at City Hall MRT station so that we could grab our sleep from all those partying.

Simple but enjoyable story for my 2008 Christmas celebrations. ^__^

Christmas Celebrations 2008

It's Christmas Eve for the year 2008 and I am currently resting at home even though I was hoping to do some last minute Christmas shopping. There's still a cold drizzle since the night-long rain right now so I'll have to wait till the drizzle to stop first.

Maybe it's the mood of the economic recession ahead so most of my hard-partying friends seem to be toning down their year-end festive celebrations so there are fewer spectacular celebrations this year for me. I'll be heading down to the Married Soldier's house for a nice, cozy Christmas Eve dinner in the company of friends rather than squeezing with the festive crowds in the city area later on in the evening. With the amount of liquor promised at the gathering, I suppose there will be some good drinking going on, maybe carrying on throughout the night. The second celebration on Christmas Day itself will probably be a movie "Australia" and maybe a meal with the Busy Bee but it's still unconfirmed because both of us would probably be out at our respective parties way late into the night today.

I would like to wish every single blog reader here a Merry Christmas. No matter what your celebrations are, enjoy yourself and remember to share and spread the joy and care for all the people around you. Have fun and keep safe! ^__^

(Image source: http://www.lumesoft.com/images)

Movie Review: Yes Man (2008)

I finally managed to catch Yes Man today and it's a really interesting movie because the movie protagonist, Carl Allen (Jim Carrey), was quite a nay-sayer, opting out of life's many opportunities until he deeply disappointed his best friend by excusing himself out of his best friend's engagement party. Shaken by the terrible possibility of dying alone and friendless, Carl attended a motivational seminar which turned him into a Yes Man - someone who supposedly have to say "yes" to any opportunity that comes along in his life.

What follows were a series of astounding encounters where Carl drove the homeless, emptied his wallet, risked his neck on a scooter, met the girl of his dreams, got into a hopelessly drunken brawl, got sexually relieved by his elderly woman neighbour, got promoted, did a bunjee jump off a bridge, met an entire new group of friends, saved some suicidal person with a song on a guitar, flew his own plane, learned Korean, got arrested by intelligence operatives.

The second half of the movie was sadly less exciting because the movie concentrated on him trying to convince the girl of his life that he was not saying "yes" to her because of the motivational seminar but because he truly meant "yes" in his heart.

All in all, I felt that the movie was still a very amusing movie which preached a very simple message - are people saying no more often than they should? Perhaps people have been missing out on engaging life within their possible means by opting out rather than jumping in. Personally, I am influenced by the movie to some extent and I thought I should learn to say yes more often because life's possibilities are endless and life's changes may not necessarily be negative.

So here I go - Yes! Although I cannot please everyone, I will do what I can to engage life at its fullest. I may fall flat on my face but I am not flat in my spirits.

What are you waiting for? Say "Yes" and go watch the movie yourself! Hahaha!

"Wolverine" The Teaser Movie Trailer

Alright, I have watched all the previous X-men movies and I don't think I am going to miss this one. Something to look forward to for 01 May 2009.

I am such a movie addict and I enjoyed being so. Adamantium claws, anyone? =D

SandFantasy 2008 By IIana Yahav

What a beautiful story well told. Enjoy, my readers and have a good weekend! =)

Campus Superstars Season 3

Well, the top 12 of Campus Superstars Season 3 are finally out in public. As with the previous two seasons of Campus Superstars, I will be providing performance commentaries for their performances because firstly, everyone gets to learn if I can catch and comment on the important things about singing and performances. Secondly, I feel that I can contribute a little here and there by helping the genuine singing talents and enthusiasts to hone whatever they may be lacking. Thirdly, I enjoyed good renditions of songs and good performances - after all, some of them may eventually shape the future of music and entertainment.

I would expect this season's top 12 to be slightly more well-trained than the previous batches because the auditions were closed-doors and the contestants will have more time to hone their skills under the possible tutorship of some of the talented local music instructors, singers and lyricists in Singapore before taking on the official competition stage in January 2009. Their supporters seem more organized with at least nine fan clubs already set up before the official competition and the page hits are impressive. However, given the economic downturn which will kick in in 2009, I would expect to see how MediaCorp Singapore may have to come up with creative ways to encourage votes.

During the past year, I have attended as many singing auditions as I could to observe how contestants fared during their performances and I have also personally increased my own stage experience in the hope that I will be able to do a better job at the upcoming performance commentaries. Being a critic in the past two seasons was not easy because I needed to keep my commentaries as objectively as I can, amidst all the flaming, slandering and accusations. Some of my harshest online opposition just wanted me to shut up and stop exposing their Superstars' weaknesses but for the betterment of the quality of singing and performances, I pressed on and finished what I intended to. Let's hope this new season's worth of supporters can be more civilized and understanding.

(Image Source: Campus Superstars 3 Official Website by MediaCorp Singapore)

《愛的牧羊人》 by 伍思凱 Sky Wu

一个忍受寂寞的人
一条长满荆棘的路
天冷风吹的狠
我的脸上沾满了灰尘

我是一个爱的牧羊人
啊寻找一个爱我的人
就算世界笑我多愚蠢
我也不能乱了分寸
我很累我不肯睡我很虔诚
天保佑我遇见幸运的神

我以为爱是个方向
雨打风吹我可以忍
泪水酿成了酒
我的脚下一道一道伤痕

我是一个爱的牧羊人
啊寻找一个爱我的人
就算世界笑我多愚蠢
我也不能乱了分寸
我很累我不肯睡我很虔诚
天保佑我遇见幸运的神

我是一个爱的牧羊人
啊寻找一个爱我的人
就算世界笑我多愚蠢
我也不能乱了分寸
爱情对我招手
往前走吧去找幸福的人

草原上下着倾盆大雨
一望无际世界只有我
一步一步往前去
追逐爱的回忆

我是一个爱的牧羊人
啊寻找一个爱我的人
就算世界笑我多愚蠢
我也不能乱了分寸
爱情对我招手
往前走吧去找幸福的人

爱情~~

I was surfing youtube videos and came across this beautiful song so I am putting it up for the listening pleasure for all the readers of my blog. This is a very old composition by Sky Wu himself many years ago but the song is still so wondrous to my ears after so long.

I have even tried singing this song but I have to admit that I still cannot hold the song properly myself because the techniques used are incredibly difficult and the song's mood is not easy to portray. Anyway, have fun listening. Enjoy~~~ ^__^

Fallout 3 - The Long Awaited Game For Me

I think I am long overdue for a blog post because I have been recently indulging in a computer game which I have waited for nearly 10 years - Fallout 3.

The game is so interesting and involving for me because it is a sandbox type of game, which means the character gets to do anything he/she pleases, making countless decisions about how to impress the non-playing characters to release quests or to deal with tactical combat situations with serious considerations to factor in stealth, lighting, terrain, weaponry and even the character's alignment (good, neutral or evil).

To show my blog readers who have been faithfully checking my blog for updates all these while, I will try and list down the more interesting things I have done in the game to show why I love the game so much. Over the past couple of weeks, my character (who is competent in the skills of small guns, energy weapons, lock-picking, science and speech) has done the following things:

• Disarmed an atomic bomb in the middle of a small town
• Deliberately crippled my character's leg by blowing up on a mine for medical studies
• Put an animal observatory sensor device in the middle of a nest of monsters
• Infiltrated a library for the sake of continuing humanity's pursuit of knowledge
• Installed a satellite dish to extend the broadcast range of a radio station
• Fought alongside non-playing characters (NPCs) against a gigantic monster
• Saved some children from captivity against some slavers' encampment
• Negotiated a mutually beneficial deal between a small settlement and a group of vampires
• Stolen the weapon from a sniper in a tall building in the middle of a mine-strewn town
• Drowned more than five times attempting to swim underwater to an aircraft carrier
• Activated some complex mechanical device to try and help jump-start a science experiment
• Defeated a sinister enemy by discovering a secret way to escape from virtual reality world
• Lead my character to break out from a massive enemy fortress full of robots and soldiers
• Rescued a group of mercenaries besieged and trapped at the rooftop of a hotel
• Helped to contribute to the maintenance of a water processing plant by collecting parts
• Sold some drug components to a drug dealer for the much needed bottle caps (money)
• Neutralized some mutated ant nest due to a miscalculation by a biologist
• Allowed an escaped android to live his new lease of life by lying to his pursuer-cum-creator
• Battled some Super-Mutant fortresses and saved some hostages from the wasteland
• Collected pre-war books and sold them to a scholar for the much needed bottle caps
• Trying to find out the industrial formula for Nuka-cola (a drink in the wasteland)
• Trying to find out what the satellite towers in the wasteland does
• Trying to retrieve a 200-year-old violin for an old lady who broadcasts her music on the radio

Sounds fun? I have not even discovered more than twenty other locations on the wasteland map so there could be other crazy things that I might have to find my character doing. Here are some screenshots taken during the game. I will upload more of them to share with you readers in the near future.

Sometimes, while waiting for the shops to open for business so that my character can buy and sell things, my character would enjoy the beautiful sunrises in the game. This one was taken outside Craterside Supply Store in the earlier starting towns of Megaton.
This was taken in the night time at the front porch of Washington Building after my character took out a group of Enclave soldiers, an Enclave officer and a deadly beast known as a Deathclaw. The weapon my character was holding was a Plasma Rifle and the craft in front of my character was some sort of flying craft - I wished my character could pilot it but my character could not do so. Maybe next time?
This was taken in the evening time when my character was exiting from an important city called Rivet City (which was actually a half-broken-off aircraft carrier). My character was facing the ruins of Washington DC and it was a scary trip because the enemies could be around the very next piece of debris, raking my character with a rocket or machine-gun fire.
This was my character dressed in a Reinforced 101 Vault suit with a motorcycle helmet talking to a person called Tenpenny. Tenpenny is a rich man with a richly-lavished tower and my character was trying to negotiate to see if he could allow another group to live in his tower. I have not made a decision to this quest yet - should my character kill Tenpenny and the existing residents so that the new group could move in or should I just kill off the new group and collect Tenpenny's reward instead?
This was the view taken from Tenpenny's tower and yes, my character was literally walking over all those rock outcroppings, ruined buildings and sand-dunes before my character could reach the tower, carefully fighting and avoiding terrible beasts and raiders who would not hesitate to tear my character to shreds.

Well, that is most active activity I am currently engaging in right now. I will update again on this game as well as any other interesting happenings to me as soon as I can. Time for dinner - an Italian BMT sandwich from Subway. Yummy~~~ ^__^

赤壁：決戰天下 預告片

好期待喔~~~虽然预告片没有想像中的震撼，不过既然敢搬演经典巨作，而上一集也算不俗，我铁定会观看《决战天下》.

Superstar Virgo Cruise 4D3N Penang-Phuket-Singapore Trip (16 Nov 2008 to 19 Nov 2008)

I went on the above-mentioned cruise trip with my two parents because they have been wanting to go on a cruise for a few years but I just could not find a suitable time and trip for them until now. There weren't as many photos as I would like because I had to take care of the two of them for the entire trip but I tried to sneak in as many as I could while on the move, in between breaks.

This is taken just after I cleared the immigrations at HarbourFront Cruise Centre. It's the long bridge to the Superstar Virgo ship and there were actually mascots later on entertaining the embarking passengers further down the bridge.
This is the room in which I would be spending my time resting onboard the ship. The beds were comfy enough and the room was actually spacious for three with a decent bathroom and toilet. The only complaint I had about the room was that the blankets weren't warm enough and I had to use the greenish bed covers as a blanket because I was sleeping atop (see the folded bed at the left hand side against the wall).
The central reception area decoration piece - The Three Bronze Horses. They remind me of the four Bronze Horses in Venice. Majestic, aren't they? The piano in front was meant for entertaining the guests at the reception but I supposed he wasn't on duty yet. Hahaha.
Superstar Virgo finally left the cruise centre and I took this whilst the ship was leaving. It's the kind of view that people won't get unless they are departing Singapore by sea.
I will miss Singapore for its comfort and security for the next four days so adios! I am away on adventure in Penang and Phuket!
Ah...the sea breeze blowing in my face. The ship was heading out to the Straits of Malacca and you can see the tankers parking neatly in the Singapore waters. Can't do the Titanic foredeck thingy because the place was out of bounds - maybe the Captain was worried someone might fall overboard?
Ocean waters everywhere. You can see the island lands of Sumatra in the foggy distance but my stomach is already grumbling - I wonder what's the food onboard like?
This is breakfast on Day Two before we embark on the shores of Penang. Ain't too bad - buns and butter, wafers, sausages, scrambled eggs for a breakfast buffet, washed down by orange juice and a plate of salad. Got to get ready for the shore excursion later, right?
Whilst eating, I looked out of the windows and captured the first sunrise of Penang onboard. It's going to be a good day ashore.
The sea mist makes Penang rather sleepy but in the distance, as the ship approaches, the excitement builds, so does the challenge, because my parents could not really walk well on their feet due to their ancient age.
I finally managed to get all three of us safely onboard the jetty and a lot of people were busy snapping away with whatever recording gadgets they had on their hands - I just took one because everyone seemed rather tense on the ferry - I wonder why...
Penang's cruise centre under construction. Notice the iconic Muslim dome atop of the tower? I hope it will be ready when I step foot on Penang the next time round.
As the ferry closes in even further, another shot taken of a beautiful colonial-styled clock tower.
The jetty taken from onboard the shore excursion bus. There were a number of drivers trying persuade the shore excursion groups (numbering some 1,000 people) to take their vehicles for transport instead but true to the Singapore safe spirit, almost everyone chosed the excursion buses instead, leaving disappointed locals behind.
Penang is still quite behind development in certain parts of the ferry area - this motorcycle rental shop reminds me of those on Pulau Ubin island in Singapore. Corrulgated iron sheets coarsely constructed into small huts to shelter those really old types of motorcycles.
Our very first family meal at Penang Queensbay Mall Level 1 - it was some chicken rice themed restaurant and it costs RM40 with three plates of different flavoured chicken, jelly soup, drinks, bean sprouts and some delicious pastries as desserts.
The Queensbay Mall in Penang - their Christmas decorations were already up and running and I thought it was thoughtfully designed but most of the shops sold more or less the same things as Singapore so there wasn't much to shop around for even though the mall was superbly maintained with one distinguishable difference - the security guards there carried large automatic weapons and combat shotguns behind their backs. Scary...
This was taken onboard the shore excursion bus on our way back - the shop houses reminded me of those in Chinatown and Serangoon areas in Singapore. Pretty much the same since most of the people in Penang are Chinese Malaysians.
The building opposite Pranglin Mall of Penang, which was really chaotic because there were so many shops randomly located and the escalators were a killer - located on the far side of each level so my poor parents had to struggle between the levels. Pranglin Mall was the worser mall even though the items were cheaper than Queensway Mall. I did not bothered taking shots inside so I took this shot instead, where I was intrigued by the louvered designs of the windows. I hope Phuket has better things to see.
The sunrise at Phuket island was mesmerizing. The sun looked incredibly big there but the rays were gentle and soothing.
The aft deck of Superstar Virgo before I disembark for the shore excursion at Phuket. I rarely go to the aft deck because it was full of screaming children playing with those water theme rides and structures there. I need my peace and quiet for this trip without children thundering around.
This was taken whilst on the move along the long jetty walk to Phuket's Patong Beach. It was a difficult shot because I risked falling off the floating jetty planks but I thought it was worth the while - sleepy Patong Beach at 0730hours local time. The longtailed boats were still moored at the beach, making the whole beach seemed idyllic.
On the hillsides of Patong Beach are all the resort houses - I heard from the tour guide, Mr. Gobi, that Patong Beach lost nearly 300 souls during the Indian Ocean Tsunami so I could still see some resort houses under reconstruction. The tsunami wave was 6 metres high then.
The Pornthip Sea Store was one of the excursion stops and it sells a lot of sea products which many grabbed - my parents bought a number of food items from this shop and I got myself some gifts for my VIP friends.
The Sri Burapa Cashew Nut Factory sells a lot of cashew nut related products as well as other items found in the earlier store as well but the crowd was densely packed and I noticed sparrows were resting at those ceiling lights since it was an open air building. My father was busy tasting all the food products samples whilst I was just admiring the view and drinking some cashew nut drink. Haha.
Thainam restaurant was where the shore excursion trip lunch would be prepared. The entrance was really grand without marble pillars and flooring and exquisitely decorated railings. The beef and chicken was really nice but I was not impressed with how they prepared their desserts and rice. Still, it was an enjoyable break from the excursion.
The Central Festival Mall in Phuket was big and beautiful with a number of interesting shops, especially the booth stalls selling trinklets. My parents bought another batch of items there whilst I got myself a nice shirt inside for 600 baht and some presents for my students at 500 baht.
Already back onboard Superstar Virgo but the ship had not left the harbour yet so I went onto the deck and took some scenic pictures of Patong Beach.
Some of the beachs were isolated and I thought it must have been nice to visit those beaches (accessible only by swimming or by boat or by snorkelling there). However, the shore excursion lasted only from 9am till 4am so there wasn't enough time.
The glittering sea illuminated by the sunset at Phuket Island. Time to look for my next meal onboard.
This is taken inside my favourite restaurant onboard - Bella Vista, a classy western styled restaurant where they served what I considered the best food onboard. The dress code was strict but it seemed most of the passengers could not cared about it. I still wore my best shirt and pants there every time though.
Oops, missed the Central Festival Mall shot. Here it is.
Another shot of Patong Beach, fully awoke. See the sail boats and the umbrellas opening up in the distance? Time for the beach tourists!
Breakfast at Bella Vista on the last day consisted of buffet breakfast and I ordered their special of the day - pancakes. They looked really hard but tasted soft and creamy inside with raisins though. Hahaha. I love pancakes for breakfast and tea.
Lunch at the Mediterranean Buffet was alway filling. Cabbages, stewed lamb, fried fish fillet, salad, cakes and pudding. Yummy...
It's been days onboard without computer or newspapers access. Internet access onboard costs $13.80/hour and there was only Bangkok Post newspapers onboard so I had to make do with what I could. I chose a nice spot inside the library onboard and read through the entire newspapers.
The dinner at Bella Vista before we disembark back to Singapore. I had skewered beef while my parents had some pork chops and cabbage wraps. I will miss the sheer variety of food onboard though. Hahaha...munch munch munch.
Back at HarbourFront Cruise Centre where we had to wait 90 minutes at the taxi queue because most of the taxis were "on call". It was really tiring lugging everything and waiting but at least I brought my parents back safely with a camera load of pictures and a mind load of beautiful memories and experiences. Time to crash back to bed when I reach home. Zzzzz....