Click! Trrrr..... (cpu comes alive)
Click! *glow* (monitor blinks)
* dust dust dust * *cough cough*
Jie : "Hello my computer"
My computer : "Hello stranger"
Jie : "Errkk...."
Well, cynical PC aside, I've been extremely busy at work these couple of weeks, and also a little under the weather, demam selsema snot & all, and this persistent cough which is so bad sometimes it feels like the bladder's gonna go while I'm coughing, although thankfully I haven't embarassed myself yet.
And yet in the midst of this all, I managed to catch the much-hypped about moozikal of the year. You know, THE Musical, which was so sold out, they had to extend their performance for another two days so that everyone and his donkey can go watch it.
Impressive! Fantastic! Amazing! Absolutely awsome! The actors? Nope, I was talking 'bout the stage lighting and set. OK, this is purely my very own personal opinion, don't say I didn't warn you!
To begin with, the show that day started 15 minutes late. Meanwhile we had to be contented looking at a white screen with the PiJiEl logo on it. So that kinda dampened the mood a little. The show opens with a scene of Majapahit, and everyone perked up at the sight of so many 'kemban' ladies hehehe. The guys too wore the traditional javanese costume, and everyone was dancing so energetically and jumping and flashing their armpits.
OK, let's not go into the storyline, as history has never been my thing. I know Puteri Gunung Ledang is supposed to be the beautiful princess who gave the Sultan Melaka some really ridiculous requests for her hantaran, but I know nuts all about her origin. A little googling found me this very interesting article - http://www.sabrizain.org/malaya/melaka3.htm - Now I'm A LOT more confused than before!
Anyway, cik kemban sure likes her outfits, cause she was in kemban all the way from Majapahit to Melaka. Her singing was just like me. I mean, we can hit the notes because we are not tone-deaf, but there's nothing special about the voice *sigh*. There were a few glitches, the most obvious was when she wanted to quiet down her dayang-dayang, she actually said "OK..." She's cunning enough to 'import' her Tuah, because had he been a local malay actor doing all those oh-so-many hugs scenes and kissing her hands, it would've created some noise methinks.
Tuah was, well, OK, good voice albeit with a slight lisp. Showed off his biceps in that sleeveless baju when climbing Gunung Ledang, though Tun Mamat and all the other hulubalang were in full songket gear. But in the end I kinda felt pity for him. His discomfort with the language was quite obvious, and he was trying too hard to be more malay than anyone else on stage. He ended up stressing his pronounciations, like "Patiik raseee gembireee". I have no doubt that he works real hard though, hafal skrip & lagu in an almost-foreign tongue.
For an epic love story, dunno, I didn't feel the luurvvvee at all, the chemistry thing ya know. Only one actor invoked my emotions, and I think he got good reviews all over which is darn good for a first-timer. It's A.C Mizal as the Adipati of Majapahit. That growl he did... wow hehehe sends shivers down my spine! In a different setting it might even be rated something else other than "U" hehehe.
Sukania deserves a mention too, dia memang orang teater so memang bagus la. Adlin decided to be a bit comical, doing that michael jackson dance move. The music was sometimes too loud, it drowned the actor's voices. At times I think the stage was unnecessarily overcrowded with the 'nasi tambah'. What really captured my awe was the lighting & stage set. Tapi yelah, big budget can afford better lighting & set, memang la tak boleh compare dengan most local grup teater kan.
Anywho anyhow, it was altogether quite entertaining, although if you're a serious theatre buff like my brother, you might be disappointed at the lack of 'feel' and communication between the actors and the audience. So, was it worth the above-average ticket price? Hard to say, coz I got free complimentary tickets (leech!). Ha!
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Monday, February 13, 2006
FOOD QUIRKS
I love food! I'll eat food in any way that it's prepared as long as it's Halal, the recipes don't matter, spicy sour hot sweet tangy salty whatever, I'm adventurous in that way. Malay, chinese, indian cooking, semua blasah. Italian I love, french, japanese, moroccan, arabian pun blasah gak. However, the ingredients do matter. I'm not talking about the Fear Factor's madagascar hissing cockroach kinda icky ingredients, but some normal run-of-the-mill stuff that I can't stomach.
The stomach, for instance.
Aiya, a cow's or goat's stomach la I mean.
That's a common local ingredient, cooked in so many ways like kerabu perut, satay perut, perut masak lemak etc. Probably the indians too have recipes for goat's stomach. But when I was a wee girl, I one day saw a makcik cleaning the stomach of a freshly slaughtered goat, and got so horrified that I barfed up my breakfast. So I guess that experience kinda scarred me hehehe.
As a kid, I used to love eating paru goreng the way my mom prepared it, boiled, then thinly sliced and doused with a whole load of spices, then crisp-fried, yum! One day, I went into the kitchen just as the pot containing the boiling chunks of paru emitted steam, and the smell was so icky, loya tekak. I asked my mom what smelled so bad? And she said, "peparu lembu". You see, up till that point, I just took 'paru' to be 'paru', I didn't realize it was a poor cow's lungs, urgh! Scarred again, I was.
Soon, I couldn't eat any parts of a cow other than it's meat. The thoughts of eating internal organ, or even sup ekor, makes me shudder. Not only bovine, but fowls too. I can't even eat hati ayam or tongkeng ayam (bishop's nose) these days. Ya, ya, I know you think I'm missing a lot of gastronomical delights, but no thank you. Don't get me wrong, the food's not icky at all, but the idea of it is what turns me off.
I think almost all bovine parts are edible sans the horns and teeth. Mom says the brain is soft and rich (lemak). Hati, paru, limpa, perut are very common in malay cooking. The ahem, family jewels, are a delicacy, kan? The tongue is good in soups, and bones are boiled for stock. In some places, even the hoofs are cracked open to get that soft white tissue inside. I suppose the eyeballs are also eaten elsewhere.
Those things, I won't eat, but I don't mind e ating different types of meat though. Some people eat different parts of one animal such as the cow, but I eat the only one part (meat) but from different animals. I absolutely adore lamb (yum!) and mutton. Venison is sedap, and also ___ (what's the english word for daging kerbau?) too, lebih manis although the texture is a bit 'kasar'. Among more exotic meats I've eaten are wild rusa & kancil,
Ooops... wrong kancil
courtesy of a friend's uncle who has a license to hunt these in the jungles of their kampung. And porcupine meat taste good too, walaupun dagingnya tak banyak.
Salai daging landak tu, buek masak lomak, peh! Mak motuo lalu dopan mato pun tak nampak!
Eggs are a must too. I like turkey very much, and don't mind ostrich meat. Tapi yang pelik, I cannot bring myself to eat pigeons. I just feel so sorry for them, bukannya ada daging sangat pun, it's just cruel hehehe :-) So when the rest of the family's smacking their lips on mom's crispy fried pigeons, I pathetically retreat to the kitchen to goreng myself a telur mata kerbau *kesian*.
{ Eh Jie, what for to be so picky ha? After all, you never know exactly what parts go into all those hotdogs, and burger patties you scoffed at Mac's, or even what goes on in your favourite mamak restaurant's kitchen }
In this case, I suppose ignorance is bliss la hehehe :-)
A little bit more on food, ya? You can see how I love this topic hehehe. How about wierd combinations of normal foodstuff? Bread for instance. Since I was small, mom often eat durian ice-cream sandwiched in white bread, which in those days was pretty wierd la. I loved bread slathered with tomato sauce, such a simple snack, plus mom dulu kelentong kitorang saying 'kalau banyak makan tomato, nanti boleh dapat rosy cheeks macam orang putih'. Ceh, tipah tertipu betul!
One time, I developed a liking for bread and raw garlic, go figure. Then it's bread slathered with margarine, then sprinkled with Milo, yum! For a sweeter snack, it's bread slathered with condensed milk, then sprinkled with Milo, double yum! By the way I'm using the word 'slathered', so you can see how indulgent I am with food, ha!
Most recently, I was persuaded by a friend to try a chips sandwich - pringle's chips in between slices of bread. The taste is, well OK, but the texture is interesting... that's the first time I've eaten food that's soft on the outside and crispy on the inside, hmmpf. I love to eat fries with ice-cream, but the hot + salty and cold + sweet combo is too pelik for my friends :-(
Some other of my idiosyncrasies are like saving the yolk of a telur mata kerbau for last, just savoring that last mouthful of yolk, yum! And if I'm eating fish, I'd pick out the bones and arrange them all around the rim of my plate. Dunking peanuts into hot tea, then fishing them out and chewing the warm peanuts and washing the whole thing down with the tea. Wheatameal crackers dunked into ice-cold air sirap ros. Half-ripe (mengkal) ciku. Slices of watermelon dipped into kicap. Oh yeah, when I eat Capt Sanders meal, I eat one item at a time i.e finish the coleslaw, then taters, then bun, and last the chicken.
Am I the only one whose taste and eating habits are so pelik?
The stomach, for instance.
Aiya, a cow's or goat's stomach la I mean.
As a kid, I used to love eating paru goreng the way my mom prepared it, boiled, then thinly sliced and doused with a whole load of spices, then crisp-fried, yum! One day, I went into the kitchen just as the pot containing the boiling chunks of paru emitted steam, and the smell was so icky, loya tekak. I asked my mom what smelled so bad? And she said, "peparu lembu". You see, up till that point, I just took 'paru' to be 'paru', I didn't realize it was a poor cow's lungs, urgh! Scarred again, I was.
Lembu muka boring 
Soon, I couldn't eat any parts of a cow other than it's meat. The thoughts of eating internal organ, or even sup ekor, makes me shudder. Not only bovine, but fowls too. I can't even eat hati ayam or tongkeng ayam (bishop's nose) these days. Ya, ya, I know you think I'm missing a lot of gastronomical delights, but no thank you. Don't get me wrong, the food's not icky at all, but the idea of it is what turns me off.
I think almost all bovine parts are edible sans the horns and teeth. Mom says the brain is soft and rich (lemak). Hati, paru, limpa, perut are very common in malay cooking. The ahem, family jewels, are a delicacy, kan? The tongue is good in soups, and bones are boiled for stock. In some places, even the hoofs are cracked open to get that soft white tissue inside. I suppose the eyeballs are also eaten elsewhere.
Those things, I won't eat, but I don't mind e ating different types of meat though. Some people eat different parts of one animal such as the cow, but I eat the only one part (meat) but from different animals. I absolutely adore lamb (yum!) and mutton. Venison is sedap, and also ___ (what's the english word for daging kerbau?) too, lebih manis although the texture is a bit 'kasar'. Among more exotic meats I've eaten are wild rusa & kancil,
Ooops... wrong kancil
courtesy of a friend's uncle who has a license to hunt these in the jungles of their kampung. And porcupine meat taste good too, walaupun dagingnya tak banyak.
Salai daging landak tu, buek masak lomak, peh! Mak motuo lalu dopan mato pun tak nampak!
Chicken = good. When in uni (I lived in a hostel which had kitchen facilities), I used to stock up on chicken because it's so versatile and easy to cook, habis malas pun goreng aje, sedap jugak.
{ Eh Jie, what for to be so picky ha? After all, you never know exactly what parts go into all those hotdogs, and burger patties you scoffed at Mac's, or even what goes on in your favourite mamak restaurant's kitchen }
In this case, I suppose ignorance is bliss la hehehe :-)
A little bit more on food, ya? You can see how I love this topic hehehe. How about wierd combinations of normal foodstuff? Bread for instance. Since I was small, mom often eat durian ice-cream sandwiched in white bread, which in those days was pretty wierd la. I loved bread slathered with tomato sauce, such a simple snack, plus mom dulu kelentong kitorang saying 'kalau banyak makan tomato, nanti boleh dapat rosy cheeks macam orang putih'. Ceh, tipah tertipu betul!
One time, I developed a liking for bread and raw garlic, go figure. Then it's bread slathered with margarine, then sprinkled with Milo, yum! For a sweeter snack, it's bread slathered with condensed milk, then sprinkled with Milo, double yum! By the way I'm using the word 'slathered', so you can see how indulgent I am with food, ha!
Most recently, I was persuaded by a friend to try a chips sandwich - pringle's chips in between slices of bread. The taste is, well OK, but the texture is interesting... that's the first time I've eaten food that's soft on the outside and crispy on the inside, hmmpf. I love to eat fries with ice-cream, but the hot + salty and cold + sweet combo is too pelik for my friends :-(
Some other of my idiosyncrasies are like saving the yolk of a telur mata kerbau for last, just savoring that last mouthful of yolk, yum! And if I'm eating fish, I'd pick out the bones and arrange them all around the rim of my plate. Dunking peanuts into hot tea, then fishing them out and chewing the warm peanuts and washing the whole thing down with the tea. Wheatameal crackers dunked into ice-cold air sirap ros. Half-ripe (mengkal) ciku. Slices of watermelon dipped into kicap. Oh yeah, when I eat Capt Sanders meal, I eat one item at a time i.e finish the coleslaw, then taters, then bun, and last the chicken.
Am I the only one whose taste and eating habits are so pelik?
Sunday, February 05, 2006
THE MOVIE OR THE NOVEL?
Adik : Along, dah nengok Memoirs of a Geisha?
Aku : Belum lagi
Adik : Nak tengok? Ni dvd nya
Aku : Ok tenkiu
'Tiinngg... tonnggg... teng teng teng....' (muzik Jepun la)
Belek-belek cover dvd.
Aku : Hah??? Geisha zaman Perang Dunia Kedua dulu, ada pakai g-string?????
Padan muka aku, tengok dvd pirate hahaha entah gambar amoi mana yang di kopipes kat cover dvd tuh.
Much publicity has been given to this movie, dan aku admire sungguh the details that went into the sets & costumes, rasa macam betul-betul berada di Jepun. Pemandangan indah, especially kat taman masa sakura kembang tu, peehhhh romantiknya!
But somehow, watching this movie.... bagi aku kurang ummph la. Aku tak tahu tang mana yang kureng, tapi rasa macam 'kosong'. Aku tak dapat rasa emotional attachment dengan mana-mana karektor. Nak kata bersejarah, takde la apa sangat kejadian sejarah. Nak kata romantik sangat, idak juga {Jie, kau yang dah jaded ke? Ohh tidaaakkk....}. So last Thursday, I went out and bought the book.
Entah la, personally aku selalunya lebih puas membaca novel dari menonton filemnya, walaupun filem dalam masa 2 minit boleh dapat cerita 20 mukasurat. Maybe sebab dalam pembikinan filem, tak mungkin dapat serapkan 100% daripada cerita yang terkandung dalam novel. Ataupun jika membaca novel, kita bisa buat interpretasi dan visualisasi sendiri? Seingat aku, ada satu je yang aku much prefer the movie over the novel, "It" by Stephen King, sebab berminggu-minggu aku pening baca bukunya yang tiga inci tebal tu still tak paham. Bila nengok movienya, baru le "ooohhh.... gitu rupanya". Stoopid crazy clown, that one.
Oh yeah, out of curiosity I also bought another book by a local writer, Yvonne Lee, entitled "The Sky Is Crazy : Tales From A Trolley Dolly", about the writer's experiences as a stewardess. This makes for some nice light reading, ala-ala style Lydia Teh gitu, macam-macam kerenah ada. Have to admit, aku selalunya tak angkat pot sangat dengan steward/stewardess sebab they sort of become a fixture in the plane. But now I think I'm going to give them more attention next time I fly :-)
"Chicken or beef? Chicken or beef?" Seratus kali sebut ni, mau jadik hilang sabar gak heheheHey just a thought. A stewardess is not unlike a geisha. She's pretty, well-groomed, pleasant mannered. She sees to your needs for the duration of your stay, provides comfort and sometimes even keep you entertained. {Amboi Jie, sesuka hati kau je nak kaitkan geisha dengan stewardess ye? Gasak! *borrow this word from Suhaimi Sulaiman's blog hehehe*}
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