Sucker Punch

Sucker Punch
CAST: Emily Browning, Vanessa Hudgens and Abbie Cornish
DIRECTOR: Zack Snyder
LANGUAGE: English with Chinese subtitles
GENRE: Action/ Adventure
OPENING: 24 Mar 2011
RUNTIME: 110 mins
RATING: PG-Violence

A young girl is institutionalized by her wicked stepfather. Retreating to an alternative reality as a coping strategy, she envisions a plan which will help her escape from the facility.

Close your eyes. Open your mind. You will be unprepared. "Sucker Punch" is an epic action fantasy that takes us into the vivid imagination of a young girl whose dream world provides the ultimate escape from her darker reality.

Unrestrained by the boundaries of time and place, she is free to go where her mind takes her, and her incredible adventures blur the lines between what's real and what is imaginary. She has been locked away against her will, but Babydoll (Emily Browning) has not lost her will to survive. Determined to fight for her freedom, she urges four other young girls--the outspoken Rocket (Jena Malone), the street-smart Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens), the fiercely loyal Amber (Jamie Chung) and the reluctant Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish)--to band together and try to escape their terrible fate at the hands of their captors, Blue (Oscar Isaac), Madam Gorski (Carla Gugino) and the High Roller (Jon Hamm).

Led by Babydoll, the girls engage in fantastical warfare against everything from samurais to serpents, with a virtual arsenal at their disposal. Together, they must decide what they are willing to sacrifice in order to stay alive. But with the help of a Wise Man (Scott Glenn), their unbelievable journey--if they succeed--will set them free.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

DC and I squeezed some time out to watch this movie today.

The opening was rather unexpected cos we thought it was an all fantasy action show but it turned out to be not quite - only half fantasy. Although the graphics and effects were good, we were constantly brought from the reality to fantasy and vice versa... and, I got lost!

The fantasy world was filled with action and the samurais, dragons and bombers brought some excitement along but the actual world felt "unreal" and dark that I could not connect to it. The alternating scenes between the mental hospital and the "theatre" (both real world) was so confusing! At some point, I thought there were 3 worlds!

Although the actresses were pretty cute and sexy, I thought this show demeaned the women and the women warriors somehow did not give the wow factor when they fight. The lead actress looks like a kiddo!

I guess this movie will only appeal to boys who likes sexy or cute girls, cosplay and fantasy animation (think: Japanese manga). I wished I were at home spending my time with Baby who was running fever!


[26 Mar 2011: So, it seems that I was wrong! DC corrected me that there were indeed 3 worlds in the movie: 1 real and 2 imaginary! See? I was really lost! ]

World Invasion:Battle Los Angeles

World Invasion:Battle Los Angeles (Digital)
CAST: Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez, Ramon Rodriguez, Bridget Moynahan, Ne-Yo and Michael Peña
DIRECTOR: Jonathan Liebesman
LANGUAGE: English
OPENING: 17 Mar 2011
RUNTIME: 116 minutes
RATING: PG

For years, there have been documented cases of UFO sightings around the world – Buenos Aires, Seoul, France, Germany, China. But in 2011, what were once just sightings will become a terrifying reality when Earth is attacked by unknown forces. As people everywhere watch the world’s great cities fall, Los Angeles becomes the last stand for mankind in a battle no one expected. It’s up to a Marine staff sergeant (Aaron Eckhart) and his new platoon to draw a line in the sand as they take on an enemy unlike any they’ve ever encountered before.

A Marine platoon faces off against an alien invasion in Los Angeles.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We thought we had some time after surveying a nearby school for Baby, so DC picked this movie to watch (as usual, it has to be violent!) but Wooh, this one was not the usual war movie! There's Alien invasion!

The movie started off quite excitedly with the platoon on the heli... then it flashed back to 24 hours before. It got a little slow when they introduced the key members and then, the plot was intensified to exacerbating, a tingle of sadness, and ends with a thrill! I must say that the effects was good and I could almost feel the emotions of the soldiers at war! Overall, both DC and I were satisfied with the movie.

One thing though, I'm really terrible at identifying faces esp when they wore the same uniform. I missed out a bit here and there while trying to figure out who's who. As a peace-loving person, I also wonder why there had to be sacrifices for every war movies? Why can't they have 0 casualty? And, oh why do they portray aliens to look like how they look like in the movie, I thought there was no surprise on this.

We recommend this movie (although it received a generally negative comments from the critics) but I think it will only appeal to those who loves action-packed, war films...

My 20-month old Baby

In the past month, Baby was very explorative! I feel that I have a lot to say about his new skills but of course, I'll attempt to summarise them below... :)



He learnt how to switch on and off the small fan that was clipped on his bed one day when DC was doing it. That day, he mastered it (which surprised us) and since then, he would always bring us to his bed and eagerly showed us what he can do (climb up, reach up to switch on the fan, plunge on his bed, watch the lights on his fan and then, after a brief while, stand up to switch off the fan). Always giggly when he did this! :D

He knows how to unlock our main door now. Previously, he could only twist to lock it. So, he's now our doorman who helps to open, close, lock and unlock the door. :)

He mimics laughter and cries and shouts from us, his grandparents and even small kids! There was once we went out for breakfast with him and the girl next table was singing (which sounded like screaming) and Baby imitated that!

He brushes his own teeth shortly after I introduced tooth brushing to him! :) Now, it's a routine to have his teeth brushed after his milk before sleep.

He can match shapes, colours and patterns without guidance! I didn't mean to test him on this but just happen to get hold of one of his detached puzzle and ask him where to put it and he unexpectedly answered "There!" - all correctly! Subsequently, DC tried and we confirmed it. The bad: Instead of putting in the puzzle to the board by himself, now he rather instruct us to put the pieces in for him!

He has the strength to turn off the switches at home! Our switches are those outdated, small and hard ones, not the big, rectangular and easy to press ones. He's been trying and I'm not expecting him to know it anytime but he did it! This new skill helps lots because, he now wants to help to switch off the lights for me instead of urging me to switch them on before sleep! :P

He drinks much more water and now, he picks up his water bottle and drinks from it! Previously, he was either waiting to be fed or refused water! :)

He controls my keyboard and knows how to start or stop the songs from playing in the way he likes! Sad to say, the snow white song was no longer his favorite now.

He knows how to use a bolster and sleeps on pillow now!

He can twist the door knob halfway, not fully though...

There could be some more others that I might have forgotten but I'm already amazed by the number of skills he pick up above in just the past month!

Besides his new skills, these were also done in the past month:

- Since the recent hotel stay, we let him sleep with us occasionally (only for short naps or when he wakes up before it's time to wake up early in the morning). Love the look on him when he sleeps with us! :)

- He naps later but longer hours now. We switched him to the music class that is 1 hour later.

- He had his MMR + chickenpox jab and suffered fever.

- We switched to slice cheese instead of cube cheese for his snack.

- He loves noodles and exhibits his pickiness ever more now. E.g. When I send minced meat to his mouth, he shuts it tight but when he sees noodles, he opens it up wide and big! He also throw up the food he dislikes now, that makes feeding him very tedious!


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Back to Gunther's

What's better to make use of Stanchart 15% off dining than to go fine dining? It got to be somewhere near our offices so that we can squeeze it within our lunchtime. Of course, Gunther's at Purvis Street came to my mind. We were very impressed with the food 2 yrs back so we thought that we should revisit.

We settled for the degustation menu @ $128++ each.

Cold Angel Hair Pasta, Oscietra caviar
I simply love this cold dish. The truffle oil makes it exceptionally fragrant.


Grilled bamboo clam, Provençale style
Nice and succulent, I made sure I savour every bite :D We detected a citrus flavour to the sauce. Quite refreshing.


Egg fondant, grilled seasonal mushrooms, Spanish ham
Underneath is actually a half-boiled egg. I would never have thought of preparing half-boiled egg this way. Mushrooms, ham, cherry tomato and cheese. A nice surprise here.


Grilled lamb rack, natural jus
Very nice and succulent! I'm a meat lover :) Love the little grains of rice that goes with it.


Grilled Cod Fish
CP didn't want lamb so we had the lamb changed to cod fish. It was fresh and sweet, superb.


Fine apple tart “à la dragées”, Havana rum & raisin ice-cream
A nice finish to the meal.


Coffee n Tea


More sweets
We finished each and every single one!


Somehow, we were seated at the same seats as before.




Fine dining should excite one senses and restaurants like Gunther's, Iggys, Les Amis, Dolce Vita and Jaan definitely accomplished that. I am totally satisfied once again with Gunther's.

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ガンバッテ Gambatte Japan

The confirmed dead from the earthquake that struck Japan and subsequent tsunami on 11 March 2011 hit 6,911, with more than 10,000 unaccounted for! Not mentioning the crippled Fukushima plant that brought nuclear meltdown fears and radiation threats to the public, including those neighboring countries!

This natural catastrophe is so unimaginable for a polite and lovable and favorite country like Japan! Moreover, it's the Sakura season now, our favorite season in Japan! What a dreadful period to have this happened! I doubt if the Japanese still have the mood to celebrate the cherry blossom festival...

However, amid all the devastation 10 days after the 9.0 magnitude quake struck Japan followed by the subsequent tsunami, a warm-hearted news came along today! An 80-year-old woman and her 16 year old teen grandson were rescued! :) We need more miraculous spirit lifting stories like this at this time!




No doubt Japan will stand up and bounce back... till then, Gambatte Japan!


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Baby Brushing his teeth

Here's a video of Baby brushing his teeth:


Well, it's not the first time he brush his teeth but it's definitely the first time he uses a toothbrush to brush his teeth and all by himself. I'm pretty surprise that he even know to do it himself... he must have caught us brushing our teeth and mimic the way we do it! :)

I was actually rather shocked at seeing how well he took to a toothbrush for the first time. He shuts his mouth tight when I used the finger thimble to brush his teeth. He bites when I insert a cloth into his mouth to clean his mouth and teeth.. If I know he's so receptive of toothbrush, I'll probably start using it earlier!


Related Tweet:
18 Mar 2011, 11:07 PM, DC: Brushing teeth for the first time


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ICG: My Dream, My Vision

Here's what we submitted for this for the last activity and hehe, we got first for this, all thanks to the very creative artist, Danny!



I met a fellow colleague who attended the same Orientation camp as me years ago. We filled each other in with what we missed out. She had given birth not too long after me and just came back from one year no-pay leave. I then realised I've not met her for two years since the last time we met each other at the same course. Time flies! Also found out that she and my colleague were the game organizers of this event... and very coincidentally, the table which I was seated had 3 Raymonds! They were easy targets to pick when volunteers for the games were requested, ha!

Anyway, I had a fun afternoon attending the group event today, food was not bad but I felt that the session is a little too draggy towards the end. The bosses wanted us to hear our comments and luckily Patrick's gesture saved us from further delay from going home! :P


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More Storage and Baby A Helps Out Too

Added in a 2TB harddisk to my PC today. There are 7 harddisks in it total, old and new. Couldn't bear to throw out the old ones so it's quite a mess of cables inside. With the 2TB NAS that I bought recently, the total harddisk storage is now 5.5TB. Nice for doing multiple backups. Those photos of Baby A are priceless :)

Here is Baby A not wanting to sleep but trying to give me a hand at installing the new harddisk :)








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Signs of a Bad Caregiver

This article reached my mailbox about a month ago that might be of interest to some of you parents.

It started off by saying "It's not always easy to know whether your child's caregiver is doing the job she's supposed to. ... ... you may have trouble on your hands if:"

1. Your toddler isn't happy to see the caregiver and has become anxious and withdrawn

2. The caregiver seems secretive about the daily routine

3. Your child has been in one too many easily avoidable accidents

4. You notice your requests aren't followed

5. The caregiver seems critical of the way you're raising your child

6. The caregiver often shows up late

7. The toddler often looks unkempt and dirty

8. The caregiver's stories don't add up

Well, the above points are actually more for nanny or baby-sitters or even childcare centers, someone that you pay to take care of your child(ren). Some of them are not applicable for my case because my parents-in-law are taking care of him but, it's a good checklist to find out whether my boy is enjoying his day with his grandparents without sleuthing...

I'm happy to say that I've got great parents-in-law who are willing to spend the time and effort to come to our house early in the morning during the weekdays to take care of A. They gave their very best and A enjoys their company! :)


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At long last

Did I mention that we love our neighborhood? We have good helpful neighbors, clean quiet environment and a green park (future waterfront) just a stone's throw away... everything except for the lift.



Probably the only lament we have is the slow and unresponsive lift that takes ages to reach us. The lift logic is really lousy or outdated. Can you imagine pressing the lift when you are on mid floor and the lift chooses to go up to the top floor before it reaches you or the one on the top floor will always be the one to serve you instead of the one nearer you? There are two lifts, we don't understand why the other lift, the one nearer is not the one coming to us and it always stays parked at the first floor! There were times when we tried to press the open button when the lift door is on its way to close but not fully closed yet and the lift door takes forever to close! We used to be very bothered by it and have been wondering whether we should provide our feedback about this but we ended up living with the inconvenience.

Today, we received a delightful letter. The lift is going to be upgraded after all! Well, only if there are enough votes from all of us but it's still a good piece of news for us and since we're on the lift level, we do not have to pay for the upgrade! We (DC and I) often dream about the lift being upgraded and how the access area could be subsumed to be our balcony, haha... it felt like dream come true although we're quite sure the second part of the dream won't come true. :)


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