Eating at Port Dickson

Went for a family outing to PD. Discovered a gem among the eatery in PD - Merlin Restaurant.















Flashing back to 70's. This restaurant used to be the popular hang out place among the PD folks. Located beside the beach, you can feel the sea breeze when you are having your meal here. The crowd waiting to order the food will queue till their front gate. Besides that, they are also running an air-conditioned hotel for all the PD visitors. The kitchen staff(roughly 15 of them) is working full-force, non-stop for 12 hours a day. The weekend crowd will have to wait for quite long, since this is the favourite spot for wedding dinner/baby full moon celebration/triad celebration etc....

When I went there for our trip for lunch, everything has changed. There was no more big crowd/long queue. Only a couple of the regular customer.(I guess only the locals will be patronising this restaurant). Not sure whether there are still rooms available for renting. There's no more sea breeze, since what I can see is the sea of "lalang" outside the window. And I'm pretty sure that, there's only one cook in the kitchen at the moment, doing all the cooking stuff.
But..But the food is really superb. The price is reasonable. Please bear in mind that there's only one chef cooking, so you might have to wait a bit long after ordering)
(Of course the 70's story is just another story comes out of my imagination, but forget about my story, I'm telling the truth about the food. You must, must try this place when you are in PD. The restaurant is located around 2-3rd miles on the main road.)

Cool interior















Artistic flooring
















Retro feel interior
















Nice trishaw















Claypot Tofu















Fried Prawn















Superb "Nai-yau Squid"















Designer sofa at main hall















Retro TV you can only see in Wong Kar Wai's movie

Kuala Lumpur - The Prehistoric City (II)

City of God

City of God, a movie based on a real story, is a story about three “hoodlums” – the Tender Trio, Lil Ze & Knocout Ned at a lower class quartet called City of God, located at the west of Rio de Jeneiro.
It begins with chicken running across the street, this story is told backwards from the viewpoint of a boy name Rocket, who likes to take photograph. He witnessed the hoodlum's progress, from Tender Trio, to Lil Ze, to the death of Lil Ze.
The story ends with Li'l Zé being killed by a group of young gang members who take over the business and go about composing a list of people to kill. Rocket becomes famous from his front page photograph of Li'l Ze's body.

The cinematography of this movie is really awesome. Besides being nominated by Time as one of the 100 greatest movies of all time, it was also nominated for Academy Awards (Best Director – Fernando Meirelles, Best Adapted Screenplay – Braulio Mantovani, Best Cinematography – Cesar Charlone & Best Film Editing – Daniel Rezende)

If I am given a choice to choose the top three movies that I’ve watched for the past few years, this would definitely be one of them. This is one of the greatest movie that you shouldn't miss.
(* All conversation in Portuguese)

Credits:
The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
The film finds a surprising amount of tenderness and humor beneath the brutality. The laughs may catch in the throat, but that's only a byproduct of City Of God's power to leave viewers breathless.
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Breathtaking and terrifying, urgently involved with its characters, it announces a new director of great gifts and passions: Fernando Meirelles.
Washington Post Desson Thomson
One of the most startling, grittily brilliant films in recent years.

(Rating: 95.5/100)

Kuala Lumpur - The Prehistoric City (I)

Melacca what? KL have more building man...

无书读的日子

本月遇上了经济危机， 错失了买书的机会。为了让自己不会变成“面目可憎”， 找了些旧书出来读。。。
有张纬翊起的〈自己的房间〉和司恩鲁的〈不同凡想〉
倒遇上了不少精句。。。


钱，很重要但是比起利用它做出来的事情，显得不算什么。
人，应该对生活需求尽量满足，这样就可以去画自己想要画的图画，如果你目标过高，你永远无法 满足，经济会一直束缚着你，永远都无法画自己想要的美丽图画。
钱，若达不到自己想要的梦想，它，只是一张印刷过的纸罢了。

人生最漂亮的时候，不是成功的时候，而是坚信自己与不放弃的时候。

你计划的不一定能如你所愿，只有当下去做，才可以保证一定可以完成它。

聆听自己内在的声音，赶紧去做，就算回首，感叹时光飞逝，你依旧可以抚慰自己的心，对自己说著，我已经努力过了。

一个乐观者,不是看到自己失去什么.
一个乐观者,看到的是,自己还拥有什么.

Billy Elliot

This is a story of a young boy, Billy(Jamie Bell),a son of a miner(Gary Lewis) in Durham County. Forced by his dad to attend a boxing class, he choose to attend the ballet class instead. Amazed by his passion for dancing, his dance instructor(Julie Walters) held a private class for Billy, and encourage him to register for an audition in Royal Ballet School.
Watching this movie reminds me that you can excel in everything you are passionate with, as long as you put in the effort.

I like the part where Billy was asked what did it feel like when he was dancing, he answered: " Sort of feels good. It's sort stiff and that, but once I get going, then I like forget everything, and sort of disappear. I feel like change in my whole body. Like there's fire in my body. I'm just there, flying like a bird. Like electricity." Classic man...

This film is directed by Stephen Daldry, who makes his feature film debut with Billy Elliot, and produced by Greg Brenman & Jon Finn.

Beside winning numerous awards, (British Independent Film Awards(2000), BAFTA Awards(2001),nominated for Academy Awards, in categories Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Best Director, Best Writing in a Screenplay in 2001)

This movie is named by magazine Total Film as the 39th greatest British film of all time.

(Rating: 92.5/100)