Favourite companions for movie dates;

Movie date with family on Friday, 25th May

To celebrate the end of my papers, and also the end of a long work week with the graduation ceremony, I randomly suggested a family movie date. Sis and I have been wanting to catch The Avengers ever since the trailer was out. Due to time constraints from work and exams, we kept putting the idea on hold. Alas! Managed to persuade my parents to catch the movie with us, since there’s an ongoing promotion for GV movie patrons!

If you purchase the movie tickets with DBS/ POSB Credit & Debit Card, the prices are as follows:
- $7.50 (Mondays to Thursdays,excluding eve of PH and PH)
- $9.00 (Fridays to Sundays,including eve of PH and PH)

You may also purchase a DBS Combo (01x 85oz Large Popcorn + 02x 22oz Regular Coke) at $8.00 with any purchase of a pair of weekday / weekend movie tickets using your DBS / POSB Credit or Debit Card online, or at the box office counters. For more information on GV Partner Promotions, you can check out the link here!

Silly forgetful me had always thought that there were three graduation sessions on Friday, but it turned out to be only two! Had to postpone the dinner with my fave girls miss them tons. And I booked the movie session a little too late at 10pm, mommy was feeling sleepy by then. LOL!

We caught the movie at the nearest GV theater to our house - Jurong Point, and partly ‘cos my mom wanted to check out the newly renovated theater too. The renovated theater looks brighter, and the seats are wider as compared to the past. However, I still prefer the seats at Cathay Cineplex’s or GV Grand!

xx
Review on “The Avengers” movie

Details:
2hr 23min‎‎ – Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi (English‎)
Director: Joss Whedon
Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, and Scarlett Johansson

As mentioned, we’re probably the last few people in Singapore to catch this movie. The hype from the trailers and the boys got us really anticipating for this movie! Not to mention, the stellar cast behind this movie involved some of my favourite actors – Chris Evans and Rober Downey Jr.! Maybe we had too high an expectation, so I thought this movie wasn’t that fantastic. Too much conversation in the middle of the movie, and my poor mommy dozed off a while. LOL. The coolest parts were the scenes on Iron Man and Captain America (yes, I am biased like that ), and the last 45 minutes of the show! And of course, Iron Man was hilarious as usual, especially when he poked fun at The Hulk. Conclusion, it’s a good movie to catch if you are into action and sci-fi! For me, the company mattered more and I’m glad the whole family managed to get out of the house to catch a movie together <3

 Cute graphics of The Avengers!

Too cute!

Rating:

.5 out of 5 popcorns

xx
Another movie date!

Caught a newly-released movie “Dark Shadows“ with Stan some time back, and I seriously think that this is so much better than “The Avengers”! Maybe I am just not so much into action-packed movies

Review on “Dark Shadows” movie

Details:
1hr 53min‎‎ – Comedy, Fantasy (English‎)
Director: Tim Burton
Stars: Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Eva Green

As usual, the collaboration between Tim Burton and Johnny Depp never fails to crack me up with their dark humour and unique style. This movie marks their eighth collaboration, and I must say that their spark still exists!

“Dark Shadows” is like a soap opera, set in the ancient days (Old English), and with dramatic scripting as well. I love how the  background music and songs are injected at the right moments throughout the movie, and how the story flow was very well-scripted

Johnny Depp is still as charming as ever, and no doubt his make-up was a little too over I thought but he can really act in any role true essence of an actor! Eva Green also had the best wardrobe, with stunning dresses and she carried them off in a demure yet subtle sexiness manner.

Enjoyed the movie thoroughly, and it’s a great show to catch this coming weekend (if you don’t have other movies in mind)!

Rating:

 out of 5 popcorns

xx

Feels awesome to be back blogging after a long hiatus from the mugging! Looking forward to heading back to Malaysia on Wednesday night miss my grandparents truckloads.

xoxo, Noi

A week in a blink;

Another week has gone by, and it’s scarier knowing that another seven days are taken off my countdown chart to the first paper for this term. Three papers to take, and one ECA to complete; I just can’t wait for June to arrive! Not to mention how stupid the topic is for the ECA – a three to five minute video on end-of-life care in Singapore. And the lecturer had actually suggested us to interview her mom, who’s struck with a terminal illness. Gees, seriously?!

SATURDAY
That aside, I am glad that I managed to squeeze in some leisure time amidst the crazy weekend of mugging, doing up the outline for the ECA, and planning the study schedule. My aunt from Malaysia is in town to visit us and will be heading back to KL tomorrow, so Mommy and I brought her out on Saturday to have dinner together simple food-fare at Jurong Point’s Kopitiam.

SUNDAY
I headed out to capture some shots for my assignment. First stop was Bras Basah, and we jumped onto the opportunity to tour around National Museum of Singapore since full-time students and regulars get to enjoy free entry/S$5 (special rate) for admission fees.

BOOMZ clouds taken outside the museum;

A couple of exhibitions and galleries were opened when we visited, and I found the photography gallery particularly interesting. Perhaps ‘cos it showcased the history of Singapore from various perspectives of the key people, such as Sir Stamford Raffles and the performers from Great World Amusement Park. A pity I left my SD card at home so, I could only make do with my iPhone to snap some photos from the museum tour. That, I shall leave it to next entry.

Another place that we went to, Tiong Bahru Market; this place serves really delish hawker fare. Ordered Hainanese Chicken Rice, Chwee Kueh, Beef Soup, Oyster Omelette, and Sugar Cane drink to top it off. My fave dish has got to be the Chwee Kueh  from Jian Bo Tiong Bahru Chwee Kueh (#02-05)!

Tiong Bahru Food Market & Hawker Centre
(Check out ladyironchef’s post for more food recommendations!)
Address: 30 Seng Poh road
All these for less than S$15, daebak!

MONDAY
After a somewhat long Monday, the whole family brought my aunt out for dinner with some hawker foodfare lovin’. Our initial stop was Redhill Market & Food Centre, but too bad the tzi char store wasn’t opened for business so we decided on heading to Taman Jurong Market & Food Centre instead.

We ordered BBQ Sambal Stingray, Sotong, Kang Kang from BBQ Seafood, and Winter Melon with Spare Ribs soup from Yi Ping Tung. The latter serves really good soup, and the unique way of cooking it charcoal-style allows all the ingredients to be well-broiled. Best of all, the price is reasonable at S$4 per claypot. Yay!

BBQ Seafood
(Check out InSing’s post for more information)
Address: Yung Sheng Road, #03-178, Taman Jurong Market & Food Centre

Yi Ping Tung Charcoal Claypot Soup
(Check out InSing’s post for more information)
Address: Yung Sheng Road, #03-157, Taman Jurong Market & Food Centre

After the dinner, we brought her to Marina Bay Sands to take in the night-view of Singapore.

Chanced upon the window display of Louis Vuitton, and snapped a photo of it – amazed by the vibrant colours. But I thought the colours used for window display were a big contrast to the pastel colours used in their SS12 campaign.

LABOUR DAY
The journey went like this – Jurong Point, Jurong East, JCube, Redhill, IKEA, Changi, and Old Airport Road Food Centre. And I finally got to try the Lao Ban Soya Beancurd!! Bought a few back for mommy and sister, and they love it too. Mommy said that there’s a tinge of black sugar taste in it. The queue wasn’t that bad when I went at 8+pm, less than 30 minutes I’d say. At S$1.50 per bowl, it’s much pricier than the usual soya beancurd in the market but I think it’s worth the price. HAHA!

Lao Ban Soya Beancurd (Old Airport Road)
Address: 51 Old Airport Road, #01-127 Old Airport Road Food Centre

Wednesday
Alas! Mid-week was finally here, and it’s another day with bad headache etc. Went to the temple to pray that evening, and had a good talk with my god-uncle. Let’s just see how things go!

Simple foodfare // home-cooked food is love! Mommy never fails to let us come home in comfort and bask in love from her. LOL, so much for cheesy lines, but I really learnt not to take such details for granted after working. It’s not like I get to eat home-cooked food everyday

OTD // Crochet top with TheTinselRack Floral Blossoms Paperbag Skirt in Violet Peonies, and my trusty Longchamp bag

xx

Sooooo many movies that I wanna catch, but I think gotta wait till my assignment and exams are over – the highly raved Avengers and Battleship. Boos*

xx
Review on “The Lucky One” movie

Details:
Movie title: “The Lucky One“
1hr 41min – Romance, Drama
Director: Scott Hicks
Writers: Will Fetters (screenplay), Nicholas Sparks (novel)
Stars: Zac Efron, Taylor Schilling and Blythe Danner

Synopsis (credits here):
A Marine travels to Louisiana after serving three tours in Iraq and searches for the unknown woman he believes was his good luck charm during the war.

Perhaps I held too high hopes for this movie, so I was tad disappointed after watching it. Other than the scenes with the hot bod of Zac Efron, the rest of the story plot lacklustre and predictable. I felt the emotions shown during the scene where Taylor reminisced about her brother was more real than the chemistry between her and Zac. Nonetheless, it’s a nice movie to catch if you don’t want to fight with the crowd this weekend over tickets to the Avengers movie.

Rating:

.5 out of 5 popcorns

xx

QOTD// daily mantra; thanks for the love received.

xx

This is like, one of my longest posts ever; blogged this over the week and finally managed to publish it today. Gotta find time this weekend to do a good run and finish the rest of my mugging and video assignment \m/ FIGHTING!

xx

TGIF peeps! Looking forward to tonight

xoxo, Noi

Bucket List – Cave Diving;

*Typed a whole paragraph here and it just went MIA, grrrr*

Last Friday, we had our department retreat and the whole afternoon was packed with activities. After a 20-minute laser quest session at HomeTeamNS, which left us all lethargic and sweaty, we proceeded to Science Centre Omni Theatre for the IMAX movie, Journey Into Amazing Caves.

Synopsis of the movie
(Credits: Omni Theatre)
All over our planet are landscapes that hold caves beneath them. Challenged by the underground frontier and inspired by the secrets it may yield, cavers share a passion for exploration. Journey into Amazing Caves follows Dr. Hazel Barton and Nancy Aulenbach on an adventure as they explore unusual caves, like ice caves in Greenland and underwater caves in the jungles of Mexico, looking for important clues about the Earth’s past and microorganisms that inhabit its most extreme environments.

Come join us on an adventure from the natural world…into the unexplored depths of the underground landscapes that are as beautiful and vital as any other place on Earth.

–

The movie was really an eye-opener, especially since I’ve never heard of cave diving before. I only know of the open water diving and night diving, which I haven’t even conquered yet. The caves and waters shown in the movie were breathtaking, and I’m still in awe of the descent that the team had done in Antarctica. The glaciers proved to be great danger to the team, and they were risking their lives just so that they could collect samples of micro-organisms that may be the next drugs or antibiotics to fight human illness. Cave diving is one of the most dangerous activities, with many fatalities reported. One of the fatalities involved a cave diver’s operation to retrieve a dead cave diver’s body, but he himself died during the process.

–

Before I list cave diving into my bucket list, I think it’s more practical to conquer my fear of water, and complete my basic diving course first. Hopefully the June’12 trip with besties can go as planned! Redang, Dayang, Tioman, or Bali, bring them on!

–
Bali

Pulau Dayang

Pulau Redang

–

xoxo, Noi

“I vow to love you…”;

I vow to love you, and no matter what challenges might carry us apart,
we will always find a way back to each other.

xx

Details:
Movie title: “The Vow“
1hr 44min – Romance, Drama
Director: Michael Sucsy
Stars: Rachel McAdams, Channing Tatum, and Sam Neill

Been anticipating this movie release even before Valentine’s Day, no thanks to the movie trailer that almost everyone (or rather, girls) has shared on Facebook. Similar to the sob-story formats like The Notebook, The Vow had a more interesting story-line and it felt more real to me too. Not to mention that it’s inspired by true events (read it here), and the leads are good-looking! Heh. It could be a little too draggy at some points, but the suave charisma by Channing Tatum sustained the charm of the movie. Rachel McAdams portrayed her character really well, but the supporting characters were a little lacklustre. Nonetheless, it’s a good movie to catch on weeknights, and the plot did get me thinking about the amazing love between the couple. I say, save the weekend bucks for other ongoing movies

xx

Some quotes that I really like,

Rating:

out of 5 popcorns

Movie quotes – “The Vow”;

Did a simple tumblr-like image on a quote from one of the latest movies in town, “The Vow“; the movie that most girls have been waiting to catch, either for Channing Tatum or for the love story genre. Thought that this quote from Paige’s mom about her husband’s affair is quite meaningful, so there I went to Google for it again.

xx

Dear gastric, please be good ‘cos I have a dinner date with my dear peeps later on.
G’night!

xoxo, Noi.

Movie Review: “那些年 我们一起追的女孩”

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~如果你真的很喜歡一個女孩的話
當新郎不是妳的話
那麼你永遠無法祝福她。
結果：不，當你真的很喜歡一個女孩的話，
那麼無論新郎是誰，你都會真心祝福她。~

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~被你喜歡過，就感覺別人沒那麼喜歡了。~

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~成長，最殘酷的部份就是
女孩子永遠比同年齡的男孩子成熟~

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~戀愛最美好的，就是曖昧的時候。~

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- Excerpts from 那些年語錄 on Facebook -

Details:
English translation of movie title: “You Are the Apple of My Eye”
1hr 45min – Romance, Drama (Mandarin)
Director: Giddens Ko
Writer: Giddens Ko (novel)
Stars: Zhendong Ke, Michelle Chen and Owodog

This movie from Taiwan, 那些年 我们一起追的女孩, originated from a novel by Giddens Ko also known affectionately to his fans as Ji Ba-Dao (九把刀). Spawned off from his novel, 那些年 我们一起追的女孩 has been well-received by many who have caught this movie! Though readers of his novel have commented that the contents differ slightly, but I guess a movie could only summarise so much into a short span of 105 minutes.

For me, the movie brought back many bittersweet memories of Secondary School life – the mugging for exams, the falling out of love moments, the crushes I had, the BGR rumours, and of course the bickers with friends. Till date, the memories I had from then remained most vivid to me. Though I may have difficulties remembering the names of all the people whom I have crossed paths with, I could still remember most of the scenes and some are quite laughable, to be honest. That’s how 那些年 我们一起追的女孩 does to most people I guess; friends around me have raved about the movie. The cute leads added brownie points to the movie! Many were not convinced that Michelle Chen (the female lead) is actually almost 10 years older than her character in the movie and Zhendong Ke (the male lead). The humour in the movie rounded up this sweet movie perfectly, and most locals would definitely be able to relate to the humour.

All in all, do catch it if you haven’t! A must-watch for all, I reckon

Rating:

.5 out of 5 popcorns

The movie kind of made me missed my Secondary School life so much; given anything in this world, I wouldn’t trade this four years away. And of course, I’m thankful for the friends (from Secondary School) that I hold dear to. Coming December, we’re so gonna organise a meet-up to celebrate their after-exams and to catch up!

xx, Noi.

♥♥♥

- 我想成為一個很厲害的人， 讓這個世界因為有了我而有一點點的改變 而我的世界，不過就是妳的心 -

Movie Review: “Paranormal Activity 3”

Details:
1hr 24min‎‎ – Horror (English‎)
Director: Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman
Writers: Christopher B. Landon, Oren Peli (characters)
Cast: Chloe Csengery, Jessica Tyler Brown and Christopher Nicholas Smith

As part of a tradition of celebrating Halloween, we had visited Night Safari (Halloween Horrors) for the past two years; but this year, it has been called off (bummer!) and the USS Tickets were too expensive so we decided to go for a horror movie together instead! Haha. Golden Village also had a horror movie marathon at Jurong Point, but we skipped that and went for Paranormal Activity 3 instead.

Following the success of Paranormal Activity and Paranormal Activity 2, Paranormal Activity 3 is more of a prequel to the other two instalments. It is the story of Katie and Kristi when they were much younger, and somewhat the origin of the demon was being told as well. Shall not reveal too many spoilers here, all in all…we thought the first instalment was the scariest, but this latest movie shows the most violent scenes in terms of sounds and sightings.

Not worth the weekend ticket price in my opinioin, but good to watch if you had caught the previous two instalments.

Rating:

.5 out of 5 popcorns

Movie Review: “Real Steel”

Details:
2hr 07min‎‎ – Action, Drama, Sci-Fi (English‎)
Director: Shawn Levy
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Evangeline Lilly and Dakota Goyo

Haven’t caught a movie with dear bratty smellylamb sister in the longest time, so when I randomly suggested Real Steel…she was totally pysched about it! Caught the movie at Jurong Point, armed with popcorn combo and also ehm home-cooked bee hoon that mom has prepared for my dinner. Lol! The theater was packed, and we were surprised to see a small girl in the theater as well, even though the movie was rated PG-13.

The movie, as raved by everyone around me (almost everyone ‘cos Stan said it was ok), is mad awesome please! Action-packed, set in year 2020 so it involved sci-fi, and definitely the additional aspect of family bonding made up an awesome brew for a movie that makes you sit right up, despite it being a 2hour plus movie. And not forgetting that Hugh Jackman is oh-so-charming!! in the movie, with his smile, that look, and his physique. The robots are stunning as well - Noisy Boy, and the lovable Atom! The fight moves are really cool – incorporating boxing moves into robots, I think the moves are really beautiful.

Snippets from the movie…
Hugh Jackman, why are you so charming…

All in all, this is a must-catch! Please go watch, totally didn’t regret my decision =) and the best part? Enjoyable bonding time with my dear sister. Ever since she started working (retail hours), every outing or meals together are super precious to us as we hardly can find time to do activities. We ended the night with Flavour Burst ice-cream from McDonald’s… So, double yay to our little movie date!

Rating:

 out of 5 popcorns

Movie Review: “What’s Your Number?”

Details:
1hr 46min‎‎ – Romance, Comedy (English‎)
Director: Mark Mylod
Cast: Anna Faris, Chris Evans and Ari Graynor

The moment I saw Chris Evans in the movie trailer of “What’s Your Number?”, I exclaimed to Stan rather loudly in the theaters – WE MUST WATCH THIS! Well, nobody can really deny that he is such a hearthrob <3 Anyways, despite this movie being a rom-com chick flick (in my opinion), the movie theater at Vivo City was packed with quite an equal ratio of male to female surprisingly. Story plot is the predictable rom-com layout – girl met all the heartbreakers, then bumped into this guy but some shit had to happen which led to misunderstandings. Shit got cleared up, girl and guy made up. The End. It’s that predictable, lol. The saviours in the movie are the occasional humour, Anna’s bimbo self, and definitely the hot bod of Chris Evans. I swear that his charm swooned all girls in the theater

Not a must-watch, unless you are a big fan of Chris Evans

Rating:

.5 out of 5 popcorns

//p.s. I so wanna catch “Real Steel”! Any takers? :/

Weekend Movie Dates: “I Don’t Know How She Does It”, “Johnny English Reborn”, and “Friends With Benefits”

Like most couples in Singapore (Stan and I believe), weekend kinds means movie dates. As much as we try to find time during weekdays to catch the movies we’ve waiting for, weekend timings are more preferable. For the pass three weekends (since my birthday weekend), we’ve caught three movies – “I Don’t Know How She Does It”, “Johnny English Reborn”, and “Friends With Benefits”. To add on, it was like a movie marathon last weekend – we caught “Hubble” at Science Centre (IMAX), prior to watching “Friends With Benefits” at GVJP.

Here are my takes on these movies, but of course your views on the movies may differ from mine so, read with a pinch of salt!

“I Don’t Know How She Does It”

Details:
1hr 29min‎‎ – Comedy (English‎)
Director: Douglas McGrath
Cast: Sarah Jessica Parker, Pierce Brosnan, and Kelsey Grammer

The first of the three movies over the past three weeks – we caught this movie during my birthday weekend. It’s quite a chick flick if you were to ask me, so (most) guys would not enjoy it I think. Somehow it seemed more like a drama series than an actual movie. Nonetheless, it speaks true of women these days – juggling a career that she wants to pursue, mingling with her children and chores, and of course making sure that the relationship with her husband does not go stagnant. Quite a handful huh? Light-hearted comedy, but I find the plot quite forgettable. Catch it only if you have no other movies for a movie date? For more information (and spoilers), here’s the link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1742650/.

Rating:

.5 out of 5 popcorns!

“Johnny English Reborn”

Details:
1hr 31min –  Adventure, Comedy, Thriller (English)
Director: Oliver Parker
Cast: Rowan Atkinson, Rosamund Pike, and Dominic West

Heard lots of rave reviews from friends and colleagues that we just had to catch this movie! FYI, I did not watch the first installment of Johnny English, and I totally get the movie so it’s not must to catch the first one yeah. We caught this movie at Cathay Cineleisure, and I just have to add that Golden Village theatres have better seats in general -___- meh. Anyways, this movie is hilarious! Rowan Atkinson totally lives up to his name as a great comedian! His antics were funny as usual, not really the predictable sort I must compliment on that The story plot is interesting as well, combining Western and Eastern culture into one movie is a clever move I must say. Hurry go catch it before it stops screening, I think it has been out for a while already! And oh, do stay back for the credit mentions to end /winks.

Rating:

.5 out of 5 popcorns!

“Friends With Benefits”

Details:
1hr 29min – Romance, Comedy (English)
Director: Will Gluck
Cast: Mila Kunis, Justin Timberlake and Patricia Clarkson

The last movie of the movie marathon for the past weekends – Friends with Benefits! A rom-com definitely awesome for date nights, heh. A lot of grinding and bed scene actions, which I thought it was a little too much at a few parts of the movie. The puns and jokes made were funny though ;D Justin Timberlake is really becoming a better actor with every movie he starred in. Chemistry among the cast is great, and I think the bottomline of the whole movie is really sweet and true – “If you find someone who makes you happy, don’t let him/her go.” It’s not the exact same statement, but somewhere along that line. You get my drift, I bet.

Rating:

.5 out of 5 popcorns!

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Feeling under the weather since last Friday, I seriously didn’t expect it to be so bad that a simple flu led to coughing and now it’s sore throat. Sucky that I had to forego the NIKE 10K Run, meh. Anyways, thanks sweets for the surprise (Daisy) that I was caught off-guard whilst sipping my warm mocha at McCafe. Mommy love cooked pork/scallop porridge for Sunday’s lunch, it’s totally TDF.  Life on Sundays like these, perfecto!

Back to editing, minutes correction, and … the list goes on. Have a great week ahead peeps!

x, out.