French Movies Festival

法國電影節終于落幕了。

經過朋友恩妮的介绍, 選了幾部好看的支持一下非好莱坞主流的電影

By the Pricking of My Thumbs
(Mon petit doigt m’a dit)

There’s an elderly woman who disappears. A village that, behind all its gossip, hides a dark secret, a house split in half, tombs that are better left untouched, a doll that reappears from the past, a terrifying lawyer who wears a death mask. It will take some doing for Prudence and Bélisaire Beresford, who have Hercule Poirot’s patience and Agatha Christie’s humour, to uncover the astounding truth. “By the Pricking of My Thumbs” is the last in a series of four adventures of the duo invented by Agatha Christie.

A very humorous movie. The actress uses the name Mrs Livingstone to begin her investigation on the dark secret and risk her life many times to unveil the truth with her detective thinking.

You are so beautiful
(Je vous trouve très beau)

Aymé’s wife recently died in an accident at the farm. Soon after he realizes that he must find another wife to help handling the farm work. As it is not such an easy task in his village, he decides to seek help from a marriage bureau. Understanding that his search is spurred by practical rather than emotional reasons, the bureau’s director sends him to Romania, where numerous women seem to be willing to get married with foreigners to leave their economic condition. Aymé’s encounter with Elena will change his life....

A very simple and true to life touching comedy. Ayme fly all the way to Romania and interview all the potential wife canditates himself. At the end of the interview they all says 'You are so handsome!' to this bald and middle age man. That's where the name of this movie comes from :)

Priceless
(Hors de prix)

Irène, a conniving adventuress, is under the impression that Jean, a timid waiter at a chic hotel, is a millionaire. When she discovers what he really is, she immediately ditches him. But Jean, in love, sets out in pursuit of her and finds her on the Côte d'Azur. He quickly goes broke, ends up adopting the lifestyle of the woman he loves and becomes an escort in a magnificent palace. This new situation brings him closer to Irène, who finally deigns to acknowledge his existence. She then starts giving him advice and, without realizing it, becomes more and more attached to him.

A very Hollywood style French movie. Lots of branded clothing and luxury lifestyle surrounding both Irene and Jean.

My best friend
(Mon Meilleur Ami)

An art dealer takes a bet: he's got ten days to find a best friend. He throws himself into a frenetic series of auditions, to finally set his heart on a voluble and friendly cab driver: he’ll charm him so as to win his bet. But can you cheat at friendship?

Pity the dealer who has no friends and do not know the meaning of socializing, trying to find the formula of making frens but in a desperate way. The ending part is really drifting the audiance into the show.

My French movies marathon ended with this great movie. Hope to see more international movies showing locally.
They always promise some surprises to me !

晚霞

已經很久沒有在太陽還沒下山前回家了。
已經很久沒有在公司的窗口望見夕陽和彩霞了。
最後一次見到神魂顛倒的彩霞已經是很久以前的事了。

忙碌的工作使得私人時間一天比一天的少了。
老闆還威脅說以後的周末可能都要回公司上班。
回家后可能還要回電郵！
對此感到万二分的不願意!

今天的彩霞是在朋友的通知下出去透透氣時拍攝的。
雖然只有短短一刹那的光輝，卻達到了舒解我心情的目的。

這一刻值得珍惜。

穦紛色彩大馬

已經主辦了九年的’穦紛色彩的大馬’節目第一次移師到PutraJaya城。

為了吸引游客政府每年都會很慷慨的燒錢在這盛會。而每年都沒有讓我們的游客失望。
今年換了個外國的主辦單位，場面龐大。觀衆席可容納比往年多一倍的人數！

可惜的是沒有了各州屬本身的表演，少了很多多元化的特色。
取代的是非常重的馬來文化表演，沒有特色的服裝和一些不知所謂的舞蹈。

在外國人的眼中可能還看到表演者色彩的穦紛。而我們所見到的是咱們剛納的稅變成五顔六色的紙幣，漫無目的得在場上舞動着，隨著燦爛的煙火消逝得無影無蹤。

觀衆與舞者的距離因爲場地的關係而變得沒那麽的親切。還好最後的壓軸場面混亂觀衆全都下來與舞者共舞。氣氛蠻開心的！

外國的月亮未必圓。明年還是用囘本地的主辦單位吧。

Colors of Malaysia


The CitraWarna celebration has reached its 9th year mark this year.

The government has spent millions of dollars on this event to attract tourist and create awareness of our country in the international podium.

This year the event held its first time at our new governmental city, PutraJaya.
And for the first time organize by a foreign event company.

The spacious PutraJaya has facilitated more audience and biggest ever stage for the performers.
Unfortunately this also creates a distance between the players and the audience.
What we have missed this year not only the variety of culture and representation from different states in Malaysia, as I can see the originality of the culture as well.

Also the costume has no surprises but rather boring!

Anyway as long as the audiences are happy, the organizer is happy, we have no reason not to happy too. We all just hope that it will be better next year.

窗外有藍天

今天的天空異常的藍！

不知道是不是因爲喜歡攝影的闗係，對天空特別的敏感

每當清晨掙開眼睛見到一片藍天時都會特別的興奮 :)

最近幾個星期的早晨天空都特別的乾淨。万哩無云，

乾淨得差點可以看透宇宙 ！

就這樣按兵不動了無數個早晨終于在今天出兵了。
在緊稠的上班途中停下腳步，對著藍藍的天隨意的拍攝。

一片深幽幽的藍，只有CCD上的幾棵塵埃點綴，顯得異常的寧靜。

不知道身在遠方的你，是否也在看著同樣的一片天空呢 ？

Discovery Penang

再次与久违的槟城相会.

對我這吉隆玻人來說，槟城有一种似曾相识又有点陌生的感觉.

曾经几次匆匆的一游, 除了饱受了塞车之苦和不敢恭违的驾驶态度之外,
还品尝了道地的佳肴美食,对周围的环境印象确实還蠻好的.

多年以后再次的到访, 高楼叠起,感觉上有点像新加坡.

多谢Nikon和PCP的撮合,才让我从新发现槟城的美.
短短的一聚将会带来下一次更长的相聚.

槟城! 约定你!

It has been long since my last visit to Penang.

My memory of Penang stop at delicious food and the very frustrated traffic jam.

Today, the rapid developing Penang looks like a mini Singapore to me with all the households start paying higher to live higher n higher from the ground.

Thanks for the PCP Nikon workshop, this short trip has effectively triggered my fall to Penang !

I will definitely set my next schedule for Penang to discover more of its beauty !

收信

每天回家之后最开心的除了是见到家人之外, 最想见到的就是有一堆的信等着我去开.

平时除了会收到一些叫我付钱的信之外, 最高兴的莫过于收到定期订阅的杂志和朋友从远方寄来的信.
每期的新杂志总会让我翻阅到三更半夜. 朋友的信常会让我感到窝心的一刻. 很有冲动的立即想回信!

科技的发达把距离都拉近了, 但也把以前亲笔写信的习惯给消灭了. 取而代之的是sms, email, e-card 之类的, 连笔也省了. 所以非常珍惜朋友的亲笔信.

今天非常开心的收到一个期待已久的包裹. 里面包扎着五百张网上冲洗的照片.
很久没冲印那么多的照片了. 所以非常的期待.

虽然晚上停电, 我还是拿着蜡烛慢慢的在床上分照片.

回味与分享着照片里的每一刻, 迟迟不欲入睡.

母亲节快乐

亲爱的妈妈, 母亲节快乐！

最近有个广告说：　母亲是第一个给你喂奶的人 !
说实在第一个喂奶给你的人可能是那位印度护士姐姐呢 !

哈哈 !

无论如何母亲是把我们打大的人.. opps ! 是养大我们的人．

趁着还有机会报答母亲的时候就应该孝顺母亲，给她最好的 ！

当你做爸爸或妈妈的时候就知到为人父母的难咯！

Manila Diary 4 and the last

After a week of dry hot weather, finally the rain has come !

Rains on the last night of my stay in Manila makes me feel like missing a part.

In general, Manila has given me some surprises to remember... maybe I din expect anything from Manila and only worrying my safety before my arrival to this city.

When most of the worries have gone and started to experience the city, there is when all the surprises come.

I am so shame that we are having a big vision to become an advance country by the year 2020 but as what I can see now, we are even lacking behind Manila !

Maybe in Manila they do not have the greatest airport, the tallest towers, the cheapest fuel in this region and blar blar blarrrrr… but they have an efficient and relatively cheap public transport system, delicious and varieties of food, some advance and very rich business districts, one of the top 10 richest person in the world and most of all, the virgin beaches in the thousand islands country yet to be explored !


Tourism is one of the main income of the country and most of the cases they do not have to promote a lot. People just come and enjoy their life here !

So Manila, I will be back !

Manila Diary 3

Finally Sunday is here !

I have planned a trip with a driver to the World’s Lowest Volcano at Taal Lake, about 2 hours journey by car from Manila. Departed in the morning and started to see the different face of Philippines after leaving Manila. The street scene back to poor but busy with activities.

We reached Tagaytay city and from here went to some view points of the lake. Unfortunately the weather was too hazy, the volcano can hardly be seen. Due to the hilly area the weather is not so harsh as in Manila and of course more green here.

Hang around there for the whole morning and headed back to Manila in the afternoon. We drove through the massy and crowded China Town. Shops closed on Sunday and I was Surprised to found some familiar scene from Hong Kong where they hang the Chinese written sign boards exactly like in HK.

After that we dropped by Intramuros, the Spanish fort with some preserved old churches to have some photos.



I was lucky to meet few wedding couples having their life time event in 2 of the famous churches, San Agustin Church and Plaza de Roma, the Manila Cathedral.




For sure I did not let go this opportunity to shot their wedding ceremony. Having their wedding witness by these heritage churches is the dream of all couples !




After Intramuros, the driver dropped his family at the Makati area, another big city in the metropolitan of Manila. This area is where all the high rise buildings are and is the richest business district in metro Manila. Makati city reminds me of Singapore’s Raffles Place. It’s clean and organized. There are many other areas in this district to be developed to some upper class business and residential area.


The economy is booming in these areas but there are still a lot of poor people living alongside the polluted river at the suburb. That’s a very huge contrast.

Manila Diary 2

Makati Business Districts view from my office

The fifth day, seafood dinner again but this time is fresh seafood. The crab and the prawn are all first class fresh, surpass our seafood market dinner two days ago !

The restaurant is near the US embassy seaside, called SeaWalf.

As promise, we headed to Makati city after the dinner. It is the business district of Manila where dominated by high rise buildings. The journey to Makati is a painful one. The short 10KM took us more than 40min due to the peak hour traffic.

The traffic jam at Makati city

However it is worth the effort because we got the chance to see the other busy part of Manila.
Makati city looks more like a metropolitan than other place of Manila. Many 5 Stars hotels and high class residential apartments occupying the area. We stopped at the Greenbelt malls and spent our time at one of the open air dining café.

We were lucky to witness the famous ‘Side A’ band performs at an open stage. I can tell you the main singer showing here has one of the best solid voice that I ever heard from a live band !

I love the live bands here !!!

Manila Diary 1

It is summer now in Manila. The temperature can rise up to as high as 38c at noon !

Despite the busy working schedule, our host brought us to some of the famous restaurants to enjoy the varieties of meals.

There are more fast food stores than any other places that I have ever visited !
Restaurants and fast food shops can be found easily everywhere we step.

On the third day, we had our dinner just besides a market filled with fresh and live seafood. We bought a fish, a kilo of prawn and some very fresh squid and passed it to the restaurant to cook them in style ! They charge the cooking by the size and type of the seafood. The price is reasonable but the taste is terrific !

I have long lost the memory of very fresh seafood but I’ve found it back here in this unique and non-fishy seafood market restaurant !

The after dinner walk completed our day in a delightful way ! We headed to Roxas Boulevard
and walked along the Manila Bay accompanied with hundreds of people. Open air cafés and live bands dominating the street and people just love to stay late for that.

We had a couple of beers at the front view of a famous band ‘Anthology’, showered by the wonderful rhythm and jokes, never realize that the clock was ticking so fast !

It is not hard to imagine how attractive are all these live bands enliven the night to a rare visiter like me in Manila.

More to come….

Manila mari

Manila Bay

终于又再出差了.这回到了一个我不曾想过要去的国家:

菲律宾 !

临行前朋友和同事一再叮嘱不要独自一个人在街上溜达, 因为华人常常会成为绑架的目标!!
带着不安的心情着陆马尼拉.第一印象有点像十年前的怡保市. 旧旧的感觉.

但不久后发觉这里人们的生活气息 比起我国任何的一个城市更显得生机勃勃！
感觉上这里的城市人在忙碌中更懂得享受生活, 也比我想象中的热情.

之前的不安抹去了一大半.

希望在我忙碌的工作行程里能够挤出一些时间来体检一下这城市热情！

Manila here I come !
Warnings and precaution advices from frens and family bother me a bit before my departure.

However all the worries have gone half when I realised that the people and atmosphere here is very much lively and friendly then expected !

In general the Pilipino enjoying their life much better than other metropolitan citizen do !
Singing, eating out and spending times with frens along the Manila Bay at night is their way of appreciation of life.

I wish I can squeeze some times from my tight schedule to experience that.