Most anticipated movies of 2011

2010 is coming to an end and the line up of movies in 2011 seems quite interesting.

The first is The Green Hornet starring Jay Chou. Haha..he is not the greatest actor and everyone knows his english is cmi..but its his first hollywood film..so kinda curious to find out how its like.

Smurfs!! My childhood cartoon is coming to life in 3D. Enuff said.
Personally Cars was one of my least favorite Pixar films. Not sure why they decided to make a sequel. Anyway its Pixar, so it cant be that bad.

Another movie that went back on its word. The Pirates trilogy thats supposed to have ended with At World's End is back. At least Johnny Depp is back as Captain Jack Sparrow. Pity Orlando Bloom and Kiera Knightly is not back with him. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides...May 20th.

Transformers 2 sucks..Hopefully, the third one will redeem itself. Megan Fox is gone. Somehow the title doesnt make much sense..Dark of the Moon?

Last but not least..The final..the real end to the Harry Potter series...The Deathly Hallows Part 2. Havent catch part 1 yet..but I think it looks promising.

Avatar special edition

After months of waiting, the Avatar extended collector's edition will finally be in stores! Whee! Even though its the extended edition, its still quite lacking in special features!! I think they are saving it for the ultimate 3D edition. Damn.

One of my favorite movies in 2010 - Inception. Its DVD will be out in december too. Just in time for the holiday season.

India and Doha Trip

Went for two business trips in the months of September and October. First was mumbai and then Doha. Coming from the clean and green Singapore, India was quite a culture shock for me. The living conditions, the slums..its really like what was depicted in Slumdog millionaire. I saw kids running around the streets naked. One was poop-ing on the pavement as my car drove by. Heaps of rubbish beside where these people live. Traffic condition was terrible. It takes more than good driving skills to maneuver around in Mumbai.

Then there is Doha. A rich and fast developing country. There is construction going on everywhere. People here are rich. Some filthy rich.

Qatar bid for World Cup 2022. Results of the bid will be out in a few weeks time. Good luck!

The restaurants at the Souq Waqif. A hundred over years old market restored to its former glory. Now it is a tourist hotspot.

Souq Waqif

Las Vegas and Macau has the Venetian and Doha has the Villaggio.

Encountered some heavy fog on my way to the site. I heard Doha has its fair share of sandstorms and its alot worse than this.

The Doha city center skyline. There are lots of skyscrapers with very innovative designs. Personally I think this is something Singapore lacks.

Another cafe at the Souq Waqif

I like their residential buildings. Buidlings made from earth. Kinda cool.

Starscream

Thank you Juztin and Paul for giving me this new addition to my Transformer collection. Starscream! Now I think I shall get Megatron and a few more autobots when the transformers third series comes out. Heehee

My own Subaru Impreza

I know I have said it before..I dont need a car. Its much cheaper taking a taxi. A car is a huge liability. In the end, I have to eat my own words because I got myself one last month. I got it on my birthday..it just happened, I didnt plan for it. I guess its a 30th birthday present for myself. Its a second hand car. The main reason I bought it? I guess the price was very reasonable. Maybe I was getting tired of waiting for the ever so crowded trains and buses. I was tired of inconsiderate commuters. Tired of hearing "train is coming..train is coming...train is COMMMINGG!!! " So now to hell with all that. I get to move around in my own car and add to the carbon footprint. lol.

Back again

Its been so long since I last posted something here. I think the blog is kinda dead already. Its been such a busy time for me the past few months. So busy that I lost abit of weight. I just weighed myself. 55kg. Damn. I need to eat more. Need to go back to the gym. Need to find a purpose in life.

Singapore Youth Olympics Opening Ceremony

As a Singaporean, I should be very proud that Singapore is hosting the inaugural Youth Olympic Games. But somehow, like most singaporeans, I am not really interested (according to a poll by CNA). Maybe because its not just us, the world seems to be turning a blind eye on the games too. I was looking at Yahoo.com and Yahoo.com.sg, there was no mention of the opening ceremony that happened yesterday. This is a far cry from the attention and praises the media had on the Beijing Olympic games 2 years ago. Was it a failure in our publicity effort? Maybe. Maybe its the lack of a certain thing that we can marvel at and call it a symbol of the olympic games. The Beijing games have the Bird Nest and the Water Cube..we have nothing. We dont even have a proper stadium for the opening ceremony. Its the first day of the games, so its still hard to say if the attention will grow over the next few days. But seriously, Yahoo Singapore dont even have a page dedicated to the olympic games...how sad is that!

The opening ceremony last nights has some high and low points. There were no spectacularly choreographed stunts or performances. Perhaps its unfair to compare it to the Beijing Games but pole dancing for the olympic games? Seriously? There were some cringe-worthy moments like when they welcome the athletes with "客人来看爸爸，爸爸不在家.." ..what were they thinking? and I know the wonder girls are hot and korean culture is the IN thing now but glorifying "Nobody , nobody but chu..." in the opening ceremony? And the familiar children day song "Sama Sama..." and "There are five stars arising..out on the stormy sea"..I thought I was watching some children's day celebration or the retelecast of last week National Day Parade. Then the flag bearers nearly screwed the ceremony up when many of them look lost after they appeared on the stage. Some turned left when they supposed to go right while some just stood right at the center only to realised that they are not supposed to be there. This is not supposed to happen, considering its just a simple matter of communication. Just follow the damn person holding the card in front of you! How difficult is that? The flagbearers cannot be blamed as they genuinely looked lost. The organiser should be blamed for not briefing them properly on what they were supposed to do.

Anyway, it was not all bad. There were some great moments during the ceremony. The fireworks display was amazing. The best I have seen since the opening of the Esplanade theater. The water stage called the reflecting pool is kinda cool as well.

The Olympic rings formed on the reflecting pool is really beautiful.

They really brought out the big guns for the fireworks display.

This is a really beautiful picture with MBS as the backdrop.

Its the moment that everyone , at least those who cared, was waiting for.. the olympic flag raised on singapore soil for the very first time. Tan Howe Liang, our first olympic medalist is one of the flag bearer. I was hoping he will be the final torch bearer.

I liked the idea of the pheonix delivering the olympic flame.

And the final torch bearer goes to...Darren Choy..who? That was my first reaction when I heard his name. A quick google search revealed he is the world champion for sailing. His parents must be really proud of him being able to light the olympic flame.

The olympic flame blazing above Darren Choy. The tornado effect is a nice touch. The light house design is rather cool too.

So relieved

I passed my examination. Yeah! At least I did not go USA for nothing. So relieved.

Day 8: Last day in New York

I decided the last day shall be the day I spent touring New York leisurely. But it turned out to be rather crazy. I practically walked the entire stretch of manhattan from 103th street to brooklyn bridge.

I started the morning back where I started a week ago on a saturday morning - Central Park. This time, I went to the east side to explore areas which I didnt see the last time.

Its weird to find an obelisk in the middle of Central Park. This obelisk was erected in Egypt and then removed to Alexandria by the Roman. It was presented to the city of New York in 1881 by Egypt.

The Ramble at Central Park.
At the center of the park is the Bethesda Fountain.

The wollman rink reopened by Donald Trump. Its an ice skating rink during winter and a amusement park during summer.

The Apple store just at the border of Central Park. It was packed with people queuing up to get their ipad and iphone 4.

A few streets down is the Abercrombie and Fitch Store. As usual they have their models standing in front of the store to attract customers.

The Washington Square Arch.

Everyone having fun at the fountain. The heat was unbearable that day. I think it was at least 36 degrees.

My second visit to the Brooklyn Bridge.

My final stop was at Ground Zero. I was there in 2007 and it was a construction site. 3 years later, its still a construction site. I wonder when it will finally be completed.

Day 7: Shopping Time!!

The 2nd last day of my trip was where I spent the most money. Woodbury common outlet stores. They have so many branded stuff at really cheap prices. I went crazy over there. I think I never bought so much stuff at one go.

Final tally : SGD 580. Two belts, one watch, two polo tshirt, one t shirt, one shorts, one pair of shoes, one pair of underwear, one shirt.

Day 6: Boston

The final day of the tour started with an early morning tour of Harvard. I guess this would be my only time stepping on the premise of Harvard..haha. Wish I was smart enough to actually study here.

After Harvard was the equally famous MIT college.

All the parents were so excited about the two colleges. For me, I guess its too late.
The one hour ferry ride around Boston was more interesting. You get to see the entire bay area of Boston.

Boston City Center.

Our last stop was the very old Quincy Market.

Its a market place where you find all sorts of food.

But the most famous in Boston is lobster and clam chowder and thats exactly what I had for lunch.

After lunch, my tour officially ended. The bus took me back to New York City where it all began.

Back to New York.