Maori Language Week

I came over to this country 6 years ago. Being fluent (malaysian-style, but still better than many other nationalities) in English, I had very few communication problems as everyone speaks Inggeris.
I myself can speak a few languages - english, malay, hokkien (kuching style), mandarin.

I love languages too, and have made an effort to study Korean. Alas the grammar beats me every time :)

Anyway.. back to the point,
Maori is a language that seems to me pretty much like Malay. Like any other language, I always feel that people speak it way too fast. ALthough I have come to realise that I speak Malay pretty fast too - Indonesians have trouble catching up with me, because they only learn Malay at school, but speak colloquial Indon all the time which is almost like a totally different language from Malay.

Again I digress. Anyway... I will stop blabbing and teach you a few Maori greetings


Kia ora koutou (Hi everyone)

Greetings
Tena koe (formal greeting to one person)
Tena korua (formal greeting to 2 people)
Tena koutou katoa (formal greeting to many)
Kia ora (informal greeting)
Ata Marie (formal good morning)
Morena (informal good morning)

Farewells
Ka Kite (see you (informal)
Ka kite ano (see you again)
Ma te wa (in time)
Ka korero ano (I’ll speak to you again)
Hei kona (farewell, you’re staying, I’m leaving) or Hei konei ra (farewell - I’m staying, you’re leaving)
E noho ra (Sit there, I’m leaving)
Kia pai to wa (have a good day)
Po Marie (formal good night)

Sex And The City

French Hunk Gilles Marini

image stolen from www.mostbeautifulman.com

Admit it Chicas.

Did we really care about Carrie's ManBlahs, or Mr. Big, or MirSteve's bust up?

Nah.... Not really. Coz this incredibly hot hunk stole the limelight.

And he had such a minor role too - as the promiscuous stud who lived next door to Samantha who shagged a different girl every time you saw him on screen.

Except for the shower scene of course. Ah. Yes. The shower scene...

Yes I have watched SATC....dudes take that derisive sneer off your snooty faces.

Carrie's uber cool Flower Dress

image stolen from www.boston.com

What can I say? It's sex and the city. It started off with a very SATC image of Carrie strutting down in a dress with a huge flower that only Carrie can wear. Anyone else would look like they're trying too hard, or a pouf bag. It remained SATC the whole way, only longer.

People know the characters super well. People love the characters. Its an extension of the series.

Can I say its an amazing movie? No... not really. I think Carrie and Miranda were a little annoying, in fact. But then I have never been in "LOVE" with any of the characters either. I think they were smart to end the series where it was, then do the movie now. And I don't think they can do another movie. This one didn't really have a plot - I mean - Carrie being semi-jilted at the altar was the 'main plot' ok?

Ah no other spoilers. Watch it yourself. Don't get me wrong - I did enjoy it very much. I always enjoy sex and the city. Mucho entertaining :) Just dont expect anything deep.

p/s Mr Big is fat...

Awan yang Terpilu

Kerana cinta

Aku kembara

Bagai camar melintas laut

Mencari pohon untuk berteduh

Kerana cinta

Aku kembara

Ikut lagu

Bisikan hati

Mendamba kasih paling setia

(Korus)Sepasang sayap tak terlihat

Umpama mimpi yang tersimpan

Jadi rintikRintik hujan

Menciptakan awan yang terpilu

Puisi ini tercipta lantas

Tak kesampaian

Hajat meronakan

Gelora rindu ku kepadamu

(Korus)Sepasang sayap tak terlihat

Umpama mimpi yang tersimpan

Jadi rintikRintik hujan

Menciptakan awan yang terpilu

Ingin sekali

Aku ungkapi

Isyarat jiwa dengan sempurna

Biar kau mengerti

Biar kau sedari

Perasaanku yang memujamu

A very beautiful song sung by Ning B.

I am not a Ning fan, but I am a total fan of this song :)

I prefer Dyg Nurfaizah singing it actually - she sang it during OIAM group eliminations.

Yes I could translate it, but the Malay is slightly cheem. And also I would have to rephrase the poetic bits so it can be understood in English. I'll trnaslate the first paragraph.

Because of love

I roam

Like a seagull

Crossing the ocean

Searching for a tree

For shelter

It is now my favorite Malay song followed by Gemilang then Seindah Biasa.

We <3 You

Its OK Fed

We Still Love YoU !!

Images stolen from various sources.

Lone Star (Hamilton)

I have always had an "ok" sort of attitude towards LoneStar FOod.

Its not cuisine to die for, but it churns out consistent food all the time, not to mention huge servings. Or that's what I've always thought. SO If we are ever stuck for an eating place we would head to Lonestar.

before I get into it I'll talk a little about Lonestar. I used to frequent this around twice a month. They are well known for good hearty portions of down to earth "rustic" food - steaks, ribs, etc. They do serve a pretty wide range of typical food - different cuts of steak (sirloin, angus, ribeye), pork ribs and pork roast (called lassoo of hog), chicken cooked in diff ways and seafood (mussels, salmon etc). Their most famous dish is the pork ribs, and beware if you are a small eater - pray do NOT order the huge portion. It is seriously a mountain.

Anyway, we went there because my Eating Partner (EP) had a craving for the ribs. We got there but there wasn't a table (and u cant make reservations which pisses me off every time) so EP and I were told that a table would be free in two seconds and to get a drink from the bar. Which we did - i had a juice newton and EP had a beer. However, ten minutes later, we were STILL sitting at the bar, watching people who had come after us being seated. They have NO system whatsoever, and didn't even write down our names so they just came round and tried to work off memory who had come first. And so we had been overlooked totally!!!
NO SEATING SYSTEM??? NOT A GOOD IDEA WITH SO MANY PATRONS HELLO???

SO EP marched round and asked the chik at the counter to seat us. There were several tables available by now. *Sigh*. And we got the one right next to the fire. And I mean real close to the fire. I wasn't too happy but I decided not to make a fuss over it.

So we ordered our food and my waitress was pretty ok - i ordered the Dixie Chicken and EP ordered the ribs. And we sat back to wait.
And wait

ANd wait

AND wait...

and wait....................

till I asked EP if i could eat my muffin (we bought muffins from muffinbreak) but EP wouldnt let me :( SO bi sat th ere getting hungrier
and hungrier

and hungrier.

TIll finally I saw a ray of hope.. . The people who had been seated just before us got their food.. I got really excited and chattered to EP. And sure enough my dixie chicken came pretty soon after that.

However it was pretty disappointing this time round.
The chicken chunks were huge which is a bad thing because the inside was very dry, tough and overcooked without much help from the sauce (because there wasn't enough sauce this time).

EP said that her ribs were too dry and overdone too. And again not enough sauce.

In the end I resorted to asking for tomato sauce, mixing it with green +red tabasco sauce and pretending that was nandos periperi mild.

:(

For the price we paid - I think it wasn't worth it. I would rather go to somewhere like Cullens and get excellent food.

*oneandahalfthumbsdown* - they did get the chips right this time - the last time I asked to swap their horrid buffalo chips for normal chips (which are very nice) and got told off when paying for the bill.

Till We Have Faces

Till We Have Faces
by C.S. Lewis
Published 1956

A morbidly fascinating book.. It sent shivers down my spine sometimes.. but I still couldn't put it down.

The retelling of the age-old story of psyche and cupid.. bla bla everyone knows it.. the two jealous sisters, psyche and the lamp .. and yet its different because this book looks at it from the point of view of one of the jealous sisters (Orual)

Initially I hated Orual. . She was annoying throughout the book... whether it was manipulating Psyche, or being mad at the Gods... I thought she was childish and selfish and .. well.. a bitch.. She was forever trying to excuse all her stupid behaviour by reiterating the fact that she was Ugly.. and blaming the Gods ( any God.. every single God in fact )and after finishing the book.. well ... I still hate her... I don't pity her one bit..

Psyche was a little too perfect ..she didn't mind that her cowardly father wanted to kill her or that her other stupid sister (redival) betrayed her and carried tales to the house of Ungit.. (and she didn't hate that stupid priest?geez) and she should've let Orual stab herself to death... I would have.

This book was gory in some places.. very medieval feel with frequent sacrifices and graphic descriptions of the ugliness of Ungit, her horrible temple and the smells (don't eat while reading it) And yet... it was so interesting because you seldom read a children's book this.. dark. (maybe it wasn't a childrens book)

"how can we meet the gods face to face till we have faces?"

Ai Sha 17 / Bump Off Lover

Cast

Zhang Shao Han as Yi Zhen / Yi Jing

Lu Ting Wei as Zhou Ke Qiang

Julian Yang as Lin Jia Wei

And the other supporting cast are pretty important to the story as well, actually (unlike typical dramas).

Characters

The story revolves around twins (yi zhen/yi jing). Yi zhen is portrayed as an outgoing, bubbly, strong minded, rude, sometimes unreasonable girl. Yi Jing is her twin, an asthmatic who seems gentle, polite and soft. Their mother is the principal of the school they go to. Yi Zhen has a boyfriend, Jia Wei, whose mother is a newsreader, and who is secretly having an affair with the twins’s father. The twins meet Zou Ke Qiang when they go on a holiday trip, who ends up being the brother of Zou Ke Jian, Yi Jing’s classmate, and sort of boyfriend in the end (of her life, that is).

This is generally a murder mystery; Yi Jing is mysteriously thrown off the school roof. Yi Zhen sets out to find out who did it – is it the evil teacher who got fired for sexually harassing her in the chemistry lab? Is it the weird Zou Ke Jian? Or is it the mysterious person who set up DarkHeart whom Zou Ke Jian was trying to warn them about?

The storyline is way too complicated for me to bother trying to outline in detail, because most of the little side plots actually end up meaning something later on in the series and also because I don’t want to be a spoilsport.

The theme songs are quite catchy although I still think zhang shao han isn’t an amazing singer – I liked the opening theme, kou dai de tian kong - very FIR-ry, and the closing theme was yin xin de chi bang – has a very catchy tune.

Overall one of the best series I have watched recently - a deviation from the recycled storylines that have been churned out in the last 2 years. Its not as scary as the Ice World (a japanese murder series) - that was way more creepy, which suited me just fine :) the acting was pretty good too - I was skeptical at first but in the end I had to admit Zhang Shao Han did a good job, as did the guy who was acting as Jia Wei.

Dark Chronicle

This was the first ever PS2 game I bought. I was hunting for 'Da Perfect Game' and Max and Monica looked so cutesy that I bought it straight away :) Its about Max, a boy from a hick sua-pa town who teams up with Monica, a chik from the future to save the world!!! (yay i managed to condense it into one sentence)

I won't elaborate on the storyline because there are too many twists, and the'bad guy' turns out to be the pawn of another 'bad guy' who turns out to be the pawn of another 'bad guy'. You get the idea.

There are many elements to the game. The largest is fighting (dungeon system). there are 7 levels (plus one hidden level) and the # of dungeons per level increases exponentially. You get to fight many different enemies, starting with frogs,rats, bats and clowns in the first dungeon and progressing to other more complicated enemies such as fairies, poisonous flowers, elephants, evil gnomes, fairies, card guards (think aliceinwonderland), pirate skeletons, whatever. Too many.

By the end though, you recognise that the monsters are (physically and attack-type wise) similar to those in other levels, the only difference being the amount of damage they can inflict.

-the story - is very cheezy. very typical of a overdramatic anime. 'dead' mother and all. But I'm a cynic. I skip over the story parts :P

-the upgradingofweapons system - will be one of your main focuses. I believe I spend more effort in collecting ABS and upgrading my weapons than I did breezing thru the levels. I wont talk too much a bout it - its caused me heartache at times. My advice to you is to print off a walkthrough and follow the recipes.

-GEORAMA - is super simplified simcity. Ok not even that. You need to build up the area (think houses, trees, rivers etc whatever) according to the requirements. You may also need to place people in those houses also according to requirements. Or paint a house a specific colour. Or put a lamp here or there. Or restore something to its original position. Anyway, this is an element I didn't expect to exist in this game and it was an interesting side twist.

-Recruiting - you can recruit peple along your journey. Won't talk too much as it's not too hard to do. The only reaaaaaaally hard one was Sheriff. I spent a couple of hours on recruiting him okay. Running that route in less than two minutes sipeh hard! The rest are quite easy if you have a walkthrough.-RideyPodey - an element of the game I haven't really explored. BUt interesting lah. Only I got lazy at having to keep building him up. :)

-Bosses - are normally quite easy. Even at the highest levels. IN fact you should make a HUGE effort to get a supernova as early as you can and blast everyone to smithereens. ANd level up MAx's Supernova to its maximum status. Then you'll find every single boss fight superduper easy.

-Fishing - yesssssss there is fishing too! you can fish with bait. I admit with shame that I am not a fishy person, so I wasn't too bothered about educating myself about fishing. It is very complex if you want to win the fishing contest and get huge fishes consistently. I just tend to chuk in whatever bait in whatever water :) THe walkthroughs (some of them) will tell you to fish *here* at *this time* using *this bait* using *this rod*. I just can't be bothered.

-Fish racing - is where you reaer fish, feed them, mate them into a supergood fiishyyy and then race them. Very cool! ALso have various formulas (eg feed fish this, his strength or whatever improve) but I tend to just feed whatever till it grow big big then mate and turn into a bigger fish.

Hahahaha..... ALL in all I love this game. I managed to thump the dark genie on first try with Monica! I didn't even have to use max and his supernova(maxed). Yes Pun. Again. :)

Family Guy Game PS2

I recently managed to get a cheap 2nd hand copy from EB.

I know its not super compelling gameplay. Its probably only a step and hop up from a basic 3D platform. Complexity wise probably for kids under 8 or smth. But I am a FG fan. Yes I yam. Cant u tell :D

I had so much fun -blasting bratty kids, nurses, orderlies, etc with stewies ray gun-jumping on pregger womens tummiesSliding in blubber/lard/fat-punching, kicking, beating up everyone - old people young brats, innocent bystander, policemen, shopkeepers etc. with peters fat fists and tubby thighs. So much fun I tell you. Unleashes your watchamacallit. You know lah. Unpcness.

Like u see this little brat at the supermarket screaming at its hapless mum and u wanna thump it till its green icky blood oozes out of its ears.But u cant right?Well this game lets you do that. Imagine the kids in the game are that boogery snot nose little rat you longed to squish like garfield splats spiders. And let yourself go :P

FYI this isnt Bi writing at all, its some other unknown entity who doesn’t have anything to do with Bi. Bi is good, kind hearted, sweet, etc. etc. rainbows, carebears, sunshine, sugar floss, and all that crap.

Body Butters

I have been raving on and on about the body butter from the body shop
SO I thought I should let people know what it's about because silly bo ...I mean some people don't know what it is.

Body Butter is basically a moisturiser for your skin. It is too oily for your face, so it is normally only used on your other body parts. It is a wonderful moisturiser, and normally i smother it everywhere randomly and even put it on my knees and elbows.

THe body butters from the body shop come in a pretty large range - the main focus is on fruity scents. The normal ones you can get pretty much all the time are strawberry, tangerine, mango, papaya, pink grapefruit and coconut. There is also cocoa, olive (smells weird to me), vitaminE and some flowery ones. There is also now a morianga range that is flower-based too. THe one I love the most is the peach one. Unfortunately you cannot get it alllll year round. IT SMELLS SO DAMN AWESOME! I swear, it is the Best of the lot. SOme others which I think is seasonal as well, are passionfruit and pomegranate.

Personally, I have a peach, passionfruit and strawberry. And I love them all, but I love the peach one the most.

Why am I telling you this ? because i have met people who smell bad. So if you think you smell bad, you probably do, so please buy one and smother it all over you. Imagine what a beautiful place the world would be if everyone went around smelling of peaches.

Contrary to What You Think

This will be the blog where I share with u ..

all the wonderful specials I receive via emails etc

all the wonderful online specials I catch when I'm surfing

all the wonderful specials I see when I'm out and about shopping

all the wonderful things that you must buy even if its not on sale

all the wonderful opportunities to make a little extra $

all the wonderful opportunites TO MAKE HUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE$$$$$$$$$$$$$

some of the wonderful books I have been reading

some wonderful personal development opportunities



P/S I am not a shopaholic :)