How to Train Your Dragon – the movie isn’t quite what you’d expect, going by the title. and it’s one of those silly happy ending, good triumphs over evil kinda movies which leave you feeling happy and thinking about all but the endless list of things you have yet to do / anything unhappy. and I love toothless! I love the idea of dragons as pets! haha this does quite remind me of Avatar though, in which the lead blue creature (forgot what they’re called) tames the dragon-looking beast and ends up saving his adopted blue race with the help of the tamed beast. but hey, I enjoyed that part about Avatar, so I don’t quite mind watching it again, in a cuter cartoon version.

Avatar – well, it was largely entertaining, kept me on the edge of my seat almost throughout the movie. what can I say, James Cameron outdid himself at it.

The Blind Side – it’s all nice and well when the ending is a happy one, especially when its a cartoon or entirely fictional movie like avatar. but when you find out the heartwarming movie you’ve just watched was adapted from a true story, it overwhelms you just a little, and reminds you that such goodness still exists in people. I loved this one, and loved seeing pictures of the real family who took ‘Big Mike’ in and made him family.

Alright, that’s all for now! Time for bed! With a tummy full of egg prata and kick ass teh for supper just now. yums!

+ for a loving boyfriend

+ for long-lasting friendships

+ for a stable decent paying job which still leaves me my weekends for myself and the aforementioned people

+ for nice colleagues

+ for being born and raised in this country

+ for the opportunities I’ve been given

This post was inspired by the boy’s essay assignment for his students, for which the theme was “Sad” and the topic was to “write about an incident you would never forget”..

Inspiring me to go shopping!!

Jing suggested today that perhaps we should all go on a holiday together.. us old nanyang girls who’ve known each other for almost a decade now. The last time we went on a holiday together was to Phuket, while waiting for university life to begin. That’s been more than 4 and a half years now.. and I’m so tempted by the idea of reliving those times again. I miss the unblocked view of the sea from our resort room, the massage I enjoyed while hearing the waves crash against the cliff our resort was located on, the wonderful thai food and dinners spent at the open-air restaurant sipping cups of Mai Thai, getting tipsy and dancing to their music haha Best of all I get to get away from work!

Anyhow, friday is finally coming around again.. the weekend will be filled with The Blind Side, a cousin’s wedding and tennis.. if only I could squeeze in some shopping in between.

If everyone went vegetarian just for one day, the U.S. would prevent: Greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 1.2 million tons of CO2, as much as produced by all of France; 3 million tons of soil erosion and $70 million in resulting economic damages;  4.5 million tons of animal excrement;  Almost 7 tons of ammonia emissions, a major air pollutant.

I’ve been slow to pick up on the reality that my meat-eating can be one of the bigger contributors to climate change. Its not that I haven’t heard these facts before, I must have, but I have never really felt the need to change my habits beyond the usual energy-saving stuff like switching off appliances, using the fan rather than the aircon etc. Somehow this article on Green Kampong (a green website by local celebrity Nadya Hutagalung) has just made me reconsider the impact of my dinner of a simple MacDonalds’ Beef Prosperity burger.

Before reading this article, I’d felt I was doing my part in helping to slow climate change, as compared to most other people I know who don’t bother at all. But reading it made me realise I really wasn’t doing much – the airconditioners in my house still remain switched on everynight, and at temperatures below 25 degrees; we have 2 cars in the family which are driven everyday without fail by my dad and elder brother. I doubt the level of electricity use has been reduced much by me alone. While we now keep aside plastic bottles for recycling these days and I try to take less packaging/plastic bags, like what the article mentions, it still isn’t enough.

So in addition to my 2010 resolutions, I am going to try going vegetarian on certain days of the week, starting with 2 days each week for now. We’ll see how that works out, hopefully I’ll be sticking with it for life.

On a separate note, movies I want to watch -

1) The Blind Side

2) New York I Love You (from the producers of Paris je t’aime, back with a stellar cast this time)

3) The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus

4) The Lovely Bones (even though I’ve already read a review which says the book is better, but I figure I’ll watch this movie and then read the book)

I stole this from Chengwei’s blog, and I love how meaningful it is!

I seem to love quotes these days..

so long, that the year has come to a close and its the start of a new year now, year 2010. This year seems to be in my memory, the first year I’m making and trying to keep my new year resolutions.. and I’m hoping that as with what Mr Mraz mentions here, putting them out in this manner will help remind me of them and hence help me keep them even 10-12 months on..

In the year 2010, I resolve to -

1) Stop pulling my hair when I’m thinking or when I find a stray strand of hair;

2) Drink at least 2 litres of water a day (at least on working days); and

3) Deepen my green practices, by not taking plastic bags when shopping if possible, recycling bottles, paper and other used materials, conserving electricity (by secretly setting a timer on the airconditioner so my brother won’t find out), and by turning off the tap as soon as is possible. And hopefully in the process, influence the people around me to do the same.

Year 2010 seems the year to deepen/begin such practices, with the year past seeing the climate conference in Copenhagen, and in general a greater awareness of the issues we already are facing in terms of the global climate. Avatar was released to the holiday season, and with its undertones of the destruction we’re causing to our earth, hopefully the message James Cameron is trying to relay to his audience will resonate with movie-goers, especially in Singapore, where conserving and recycling still hasn’t picked up.

I just hope that what’s no. 3 on my resolution list will appear on many other Singaporeans’ lists, no matter how far down they may rank.

Honestly I’ve never been one to put out my personal thoughts on my blog. It feels too exposed and I wonder how some people do it. Perhaps its also that I never seem to be able to express myself well enough, and so I always end up binning my draft. So I guess the purpose of this is just to jot down random thoughts on a very random basis. Hopefully I’ll find enough things to inspire me to keep this going.

While I’m not quite inspired by it, tennis has been more than just a random thought lately. After endless procrastinating, I finally got down to organising tennis lessons and in fact, just had my third lesson over the weekend. So far, I’m loving the sport, and loving that the people I’m learning it with (namely the bf, my younger brother and shuxin) are loving it too. It makes me feel even better since I’m more or less responsible for finally getting it organised. It also doesn’t hurt that our tennis coach has been so helpful and encouraging. I’m always left wishing the weekend would hurry up and come around by the end of our 2 hour lesson on Saturday mornings.

Hoorays to tennis and my awesome new Prince racket! which by the way, burnt a $190 hole in my pocket. but I have to say, its been so worth it!

Till next time!