Chinese New Year Celebrations and more photos of food during outings.

Birthday Celebrations with The Changed Man and his girlfriend at JurongPoint:

Outing With Ex-Student At West Mall Swenson's Restaurant Before He Goes Into Army:
Chinese New Year Eve Dinner Preparations In The Kitchen:








Sumptuous Chinese New Year Eve Dinner:

An after-dinner glass of red wine as traditional of my family.

Chinese New Year Day One Breakfast- Fusion of Western and Eastern Goodies:

Chinese New Year Day Three Lunch:

Chinese New Year Day Eight Lunch With YuSheng:

Happy Valentine's Day!

A very short post here. Still busy with celebrating Chinese New Year since I have no Valentine's Day celebrations. Here's one of those songs which I think has done a very accurate portrayal of love. It needs to match like fried youtiao and beancurd drink in order to make love really seasoned. Happy Valentine's Day to all my blog readers!

I will put up Chinese New Year celebrations photos once I have more time. Meanwhile, enjoy yourselves and fatten up with all those Chinese New Year goodies! ^__^

Movie Review: 14 Blades 锦衣卫 (2010)

Movie Review:

I went to watch this movie because I support Donnie Yen's action flicks and I like the actors Sammo Hung and Zhao Wei. The movie is about how the Ming Dynasty's Imperial Guards, also known as The Brocade Guards (due to the silk brocades they wore on the outside), was being used in a power struggle and Qing Long, the commander of the Imperial Guards, was being pursued because he was in the way of the usurpers.

Qing Long felt compelled to prevent the conspiracy, which involved an exiled prince who wanted to get the Imperial Seal to allow him to return to the Imperial Palace to usurp the throne. The Imperial Seal is historically real but was lost in the folds of history. Qing Long, wounded in his failed attempt in one of his missions, decided to hire the services of an armed escort house known as Justice Escorts, in which acted by Zhao Wei was the daughter of the escort chief. The two of them ventured in the outer desert plains of China where the story would culminate into a series of deadly fights between Qing Long, Wu Zhun (who acted as a leader of some desert raider groups), Xuan Wu (acted by Qi Yingwu) and a mysterious and highly-skilled girl called Tuo Tuo (supposedly the adopted daughter of the exiled Prince).

The movie was quite alright since I was looking for some kungfu action from Donnie who managed to deliver despite the fact that he had to lug some heavy-looking box containing fourteen blades used to torture and kill enemies. There were some comical scenes in the show which lightened up the relatively morbid story about how Qing Long had to recover his dignity as an Imperial Guard because of all the treachery and betrayal. Wu Zhun was not much of an actor but at least he looked the part of the charismatic desert raider who bravely fought the mysterious female pugilist. The final scene was about how Qing Long had to face off the female pugilist who was incredibly powerful and the movie ended with a narrative of Zhao Wei recollecting the finer moments of the movie.

I would advise my blog readers not to hold their breath for any good acting close enough to the movie Bodyguards and Assassins but the action scenes were definitely impressive enough to keep my ticket value worthwhile. Zhao Wei was probably the one shouldering most of the heavy acting since almost none of the male leads could act well given their rather stony expressions and rigid body language. I took in more of the beautiful scenery but I lamented the lack of any character development of the main villain, Tuo Tuo, who seemed to only provide pugilistic scenes with too little acting to be connected well.

It's just a three popcorn movie to pass the week before Chinese New Year and I'd be looking forward to see Jackie Chan and Lee Hom's movie Big Soldier and Little General during the CNY period. Have a good Chinese Lunar New Year ahead! ^__^

Sweetlovenat Collections Blogshop and OB Music Forest Scape Chinese Confession @ Orchard 23 Jan 2010

Sweetlovenat Collections Blogshop:

I am doing my friend, Natasha, a favor by helping her to advertise her new blogshop here. Yes, I know it's the fashionable entrepreneur thingy for most of the girls these days but I thought why not? It helps the girls to learn what a business start-up is all about. Without further ado, let me show my readers what I thought, as a guy, that a girl would look good in from Natasha's collection...

Elegant black and white combination. I like the flora pattern and the sheen of that small coat, which brings out that stylish-ness of the overall feel.
This outfit should be intended for the girl to look sweet but the fabric seems thicker than usual, which is probably a good thing since the girl won't freeze to death in those seriously cold air-conditioned places. Maybe I have a thing for black and white but this outfit looks good with black slacks.
Another prom-night inspired outfit. I think what would catch a guy's eye should be the folds and the sheen of the dress. With just a couple of accessories, this outfit should be quite a winner during those formal events.
This should be a semi-formal outfit, which I think would be suitable for outings which involve some up-class restaurants or places where a firmer dress code is good. I thought a matching handbag would be nice as well. =)

Impressed enough. Just click here to visit Natasha's blogshop to find out more about her collection.

OB Music Forest Scape Chinese Confession @ Orchard 23 Jan 2010:

To honour my promise to Miaoru, I had to took a taxi to rush down from work....I was already late from the traffic jam so by the time I reached the venue, it was already 8.15pm and the event had already started. There was already a crowd of nearly 100 around the stage along Orchard Road walkway from Wisma to Ngee Ann City so I had to find a suitable spot to take the photos and watch the performances. Please remember to cite me as the source of the photos if you decide to copy and paste them on other websites or profiles. ^__^

Lighting was bad from this angle. Some of the photos' quality were atrocious because of the humans walking past the stage so I had to keep deleting photos because the heads were in the way. I think most of the photographers there had the same problem too.
Miaoru looks nervous here from this photo. Haha.
Can't remember the names of all the singers yesterday night because there were no name cards to indicate who is singing what song. Although there was a deejay announcing, it's really difficult without an actual name list to tally with one's memory of those names.

This is the emcee taken with the backdrop "Sounds like Saturday". I thought he needs a little bit of work in warming up the crowd rather than just announcing items. Maybe it's the programme over-run he is worried about but wouldn't it be better to pack less performances but have a steadier flow of entertainment?
Singing ~~~

Some retro stagework here.
Well, this guy is doing something really difficult live - to sing and play an instrument at the same time. He needs practice because the moment he sings, he slows down his playing. Maybe he is really nervous with a hundred people staring at him...haha.
Singing~~~
I thought he looked a little like Dai Yang Tian from this photo angle eh?
Dancing~~
Sorry for the poor quality. I had to tiptoe to do this shot because people kept getting in my way without saying sorry.
A more stable shot capturing some stylized poses.
My camera is no good at capturing motion shots.
.... -__-"
Singing~~~
Ah~~ she seems to be looking straight at me...gasps...
Another shot..beautiful smile she's got.
Miaoru again..singing a solo~~~

Maybe my camera has a hypnotic lens..performers' gaze are attracted to the camera somehow.
Another performer with a beautiful smile, though the performance was a little too girly for my taste.
Butt swinging~~~
Butt swinging again~~~

A duet performance~~~

Awww..so sweet to hold hands..they seem the most natural duet compared to the ones I have seen later on in the night.

Another duet performance by even younger singers...
They tried to look intimate on the stage to look the part but it's not convincing enough..haha
The left side of the stage has not enough lighting...
Singing~~~
Duet~~~ see how the duet performers are so afraid to even stand together to sing...

Finally, something better to show...the guy still looks pretty nervous..haha
Dancing~~
Dancing real hard~~~
Shake those locks~~~
They sure looked they are enjoying themselves..I like dances which the performers smiled...
This is their dance instructor receiving an interview...
Some beatbox performer

Two beatbox performers strutting their stuff into the microphone..haha


Singing~~~
Rotating the singers~~~


The girl on the right needs to pin up her hair..a quarter of her face is covered up. How would anyone remember what she looks like?

Dancing~~~



A solo piece...needs lots of confidence for such things...
A final pose before the end of their performance
A more memorable performance where the acting is better...

The shy boy trying to woo the shy girl~~~hahaha

Roses for every girl eh?
Two of the better performers that night capable of delivering Kit Chan's songs to a reasonable standard.



Some nifty chairwork onstage.
Butt shoving..hahaha
More hip shoving~~~
Forever fever?

A twelve year old girl trying to reach stardom...not bad singing for her age.
Another stronger performer with a reasonably good control of his falsetto reach.

Dancing~~~
Singing~~~
They looked bored waiting for their turn..didn't even look at the audience...
My camera finally ran out of memory. So I had to leave. Overall, it's good to know that there are still young musicians and singers working hard to realize their dreams onstage. It's a valuable experience to sing at Orchard Road live, working through those less-than-desirable sound systems, having no proper chairs to sit down and cheering fellow performers.

Hope to see such performances more often in the future. Good work! ^__^