I know my review of Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince should’ve been up what, around 2 weeks ago? Okay I’m FINALLY posting it…after crawling my way out of the mountain of assignments and lab reports and well, procrastination. I’ve been looking forward to this movie for awhile now…and for those of you living under a rock, Harry Potter’s now in his sixth year at Hogwarts and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is out in the open once again wreaking havoc with his minions aka. the Death Eaters. Here’s the movie poster…you can tell that the movie’s darker than the previous one…

Overall, as a movie it was really good! Casual movie goers are bound to enjoy this installment of the Harry Potter series…it has action, drama, a bit of romance and humor that is guaranteed to entertain one for two and a half hours. This time round, Harry gets to have private lessons with Professor Dumbledore. Hoping to learn some advanced magic to defend him against Voldemort, Harry soon finds out that Dumbledore plans to take him down memory lane through his trusty pensieve, showing Harry Voldemort’s past…before he became the dark wizard the magical world has come to fear. The movie left out several memories collected by Dumbledore from others, such as the one from a Ministry of Magic officer. The memory in question was about the Gaunt family…consisting of Marvolo, Merope and Morfin (Marvolo’s children) Does the name Marvolo ring a bell? Yes? It’s Voldemort’s previous middle name (Tom Marvolo Riddle). The Gaunts are a very old wizarding family and are the last descendants of Salazar Slytherin. Merope was Voldemort’s mother and his father was an ordinary Muggle whom Merope fell in love with. Her love was unrequited, and therefore, she slipped him a love potion til she could not bear it any longer. Tom Riddle left her and she died not long after Voldemort was born. That’s basically a bit of Voldemort’s past. I could go on and on, but I think I’ll leave it at that haha. Anyway, I know they can’t fit everything from the book in, but it’d be nice to see that memory come to life on the silver screen.

The movie showed bits from Voldemort’s childhood at the orphanage as well…


The child actor was really, really good. He managed to capture the darkness that is Voldemort…think ‘The Omen’. Incidentally, the boy’s Ralph Fiennes’ nephew (the actor who plays Voldemort)

There were some very funny bits in the movie…most of them coming from Rupert Grint who plays Roonil Wazlib Won-Won Ron Weasley. And he has a girlfriend in this sixth installment of the series. Lavender Brown’s her name…lol and haha she’s really uh…something. Most of the time she just ogles at him, or well, snogging him. I must say, when Gryffindor won the Quidditch tournament, Harry was supposed to snog Ginny…instead Ron was shown snogging Lavender Brown. And Harry and Ginny did NOT snog in the Room of Requirement!! They changed that bit too… And gosh, the Weasley twins’ shop was beyond amazing!! Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes has so much cool stuff…no wonder they’re raking in Galleons in these dark times…everyone needs a laugh as they say…

Bellatrix Lestrange who was looking every bit the madwoman she is was great as well. Helena Bonham Carter did a good job as always…and Evanna Lynch (who plays Luna Lovegood) was brilliant as well! She was destined to play Luna…she’s exactly how I pictured Luna to be from the books… ^_^ Notice her turnip earrings lol

Haha here she is with a pair of Spectrespecs…free with an issue of The Quibbler (her dad’s the editor of The Quibbler, see…) Those are some cool looking specs…I’d like a pair as well…haha. She was the one who found Harry under his Invisibility Cloak when she apparently saw some wrackspurts around Harry’s head. In the book however, Nymphadora Tonks was the one who found Harry after he got beaten up by stupid Malfoy.

Ah, and the highlight of the movie must be the part where Dumbledore took Harry along to the mysterious cave which was suspected to house a Horcrux. (magical object in which one’s soul is kept in and hidden somewhere. You’d have to split your soul first, of course…) I’ll skip the details, but wow the scene where Dumbledore conjured the ring of fire to ward off Inferi was amazing!

Little did casual movie goers know, but that would be the very last time Dumbledore would save Harry. *sniff sniff* He got Avada Kedavra-ed by Snape…cos Malfoy was too chicken to finish the task given to him by Voldemort and cos Snape made the Unbreakable Vow with Narcissa Malfoy. And towards the end, Fawkes, Dumbledore’s phoenix was seen circling the sky… T.T in the book, there was the phoenix lament and the chapter called The White Tomb which was really depressing…none of that was in the movie though :( The funeral in the book was very beautiful…Dumbledore was the best!! His words of ‘Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!’ always comes to mind. And Dumbledore was particularly fond of the Muggle sweet, Sherbet Lemon ^_^ so fond he made it a password to his office..

All in all, despite the changes made from the book, it was a pretty good movie…and I can’t wait to watch the remaining 2 halves of Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows. I read that the battle of Hogwarts scene will last for 30mins…woot!


Song of the Day: Fireflies by Owl City


Edit: Whoaaaa this is one of the longest posts I’ve ever written…haha see how much I can blab and go on and on about all things Harry Potter? lol *taps map* Mischief Managed! ^_^ Oh how I wish I had a Marauder’s Map…

So sorry for not updating in awhile…been busy and well, there wasn’t much to blog about, really. So, anyway, I went to Bon-Odori last Saturday with Seng Aik. For those of you wondering what Bon Odori’s all about, it’s supposed to be this event in Japan honoring one’s ancestors…to put it simply, it’s a Japanese version of the Hungry Ghost Festival. But you wouldn’t have guessed it anyway ‘cos the atmosphere there is anything but sombre.

>.< I was supposed to bring my camera back with me, but I forgot…and my phone’s camera is craptastic. =/ All pictures are borrowed from Senget’s blog courtesy of Seng Aik.

Bon Odori’s held every year in Penang and also in KL. It was held at the Esplanade here in Penang…and gosh, the place was so packed! Especially the road where all the food stalls were situated. Got there around I dunno, 6-ish? And I saw some Japanese families enjoying the evening, they look like they were having a picnic there! Oh, and not to mention a gazillion shutterbugs, some of which went to take pics of the Japanese families.

Family picnic

I wonder if they asked the families if they could take pics of them. They’re not some exhibition on display!

Ooh look at these adorable Japanese dolls! I wanted to get them, but they cost RM28 for a set of three. T.T

Oh, and this was some fish catching thing they had…

Something for the kids…


Oh, see this fan? They gave it out for free in KL. They sold it for RM5 in Penang…what a rip off! Pic thanks to Anne :)

There were performances as well, including drum performances and dances…

The bit towards the ending I think…the audience was encouraged to join in the dance but only a handful joined in lol

There was even a photo taking place where one could try on a yukata (Japanese garment) and have their picture taken with a parasol for RM20 O_O It was so expensive…or I would’ve gone…there was even a ghost house there lol RM8 for adults…the prices are insane! The fireworks display at the end was lovely though…that was the highlight of the event. Most people were hanging around til 10pm to watch it…

Well, it was quite fun…I’d like to go to the KL one some day…they have tons of food there! Sushi King even brought along their conveyor belt! There wasn’t a lot of authentic Japanese food here though…

Look! They have Japanese ice cream!!! (Pic thanks to Anne again ^_^)

Looks like I’ll have to end this post…it’s getting so late…and I’m sure I’ll look like a zombie in the morning… >.< Oh joy, I have to sit through one last Ethnic Relations course tomorrow. I’ll prolly fall asleep anyway…hate 8am classes…will update with more stuff real soon…goodnight folks!

Had a bake session over at Audrey’s place the other day with Seng Aik to bake some cupcakes and hang out before the semester starts. Oh, and also to visit Sunshine, Audrey’s plump and spoiled kitteh which I haven’t seen in such a long time lol. We followed Nigella’s cupcake recipe with royal icing by the way…

  Doesn’t look too pretty yet, does it?


This is the final product…the batter. Look how smooth it is now ^_^

 
lol the mathematician in charge of measuring out the ingredients

Two thumbs up from Chef Percival (okay just one thumb up in this case)

 
A kitchen timer in the shape of a cooking pot! So cute..

 
The batter going into the mould…

  
Please note that Chef Percival does not specifically endorse any brand of flour whatsoever

 
lolololololol  Ooh look! Audrey uses Ubuntu!

 
Aspiring domestic goddess doing the honor of inserting the cupcake tray into the awaiting oven ^_^

 
Wheee…you can see the cupcakes rising already! ^_^ And the smell is so lovely..

 
Perfect cupcakes after 15-20 minutes! Yum!


In goes the icing sugar, egg whites and lemon juice for the icing…ooh shiny!


Don’t they look lovely? And the dripping icing…lol

Icing overload lol

 
La pièce de résistance! 100% edible, yummy cupcakes… (Sugar high?)

 
Semi-high on cupcakes and sugar lol (Stef, wish you were here! Curious to see how high you can get on sugar keke)


Sunshiiiiiiiiiine :D


Awwww…cute kitteh

After cleaning up and all that, we headed off to lunch and picked Stef up at her house along the way…we decided to head off to David’s Diner, located in the Greentown area and it claims to have ‘Truly American food’. Lovely place…the prices are affordable and with a decent serving size. Oh, and it has Mexican food!

This is the Mexican Burritos which Audrey had I think…with some Mexican rice by the side.

 

Stef’s Mexican Tacos with Minced Chicken Filling…she claims that burritos, tacos and quesadillas are all the same lol

Seng Aik’s Seafood Alfredo

I had the Roasted Chicken Quesadillas set with 2 side dishes; Italian Roasted Potatoes and Mac & Cheese. The quesadillas and potatoes were so delicious…those were 4 BIG pieces of quesadillas. Gosh and I’m feeling hungry now..

After all that, we decided to go for a karaoke session…again. lol Stef tried to get out of it, but we made her come along anyway. Tsk tsk excuses…she said she was sleepy after that hearty meal…but she was anything BUT sleepy during karaoke lol We did a bunch of MJ songs…too bad they didn’t have Man in the Mirror…love that one. Audrey went crazy during Thriller lol and started doing ‘ow’s’ and ‘whoo-hoos’ hahaha should’ve recorded that. >.< And Stef toned down her rapping and went for more mellow songs instead. We missed Stef’s rapper self… Oh, and Audrey did her signature theme song, Whitney Houston’s The Greatest Love of All…and it was…both hilarious and uh memorable XD lol what a nice way to end our holidays…eurgh I don’t want to go back T.T Will be counting down the 6 weeks til the mid-semester break!

Last Friday, I hung out with Amy and also to exchange DVD’s lol my Hugh movie collection for her numerous Brit series/random tidbits. Somehow, she managed to persuade me to have lunch at Kizuna Japanese Restaurant…located near Medan Ipoh or rather the drive-thru McDonalds. She suggested Korean food initially but I wasn’t too keen on that.

The interior of the restaurant was kind of nice…but the waiters were hovering about closely, which I find weird. o_o Oh yes, I should probably mention that this is my first time going to a real Japanese restaurant…normally I just buy sushi or California rolls from the Jusco supermarket lol Amy did all of the ordering, except for my dish of course…me being completely clueless about Japanese names for food.

This is steamed baby soybeans/edamame if I’m not mistaken. Furry little beans…they tasted alright. A very healthy alternative as a snack I must say…

Oh yes, and I tried sashimi aka. raw fish. Wasn’t too keen on trying it, but I had to admit I was pretty curious after hearing how wonderful and fresh it is from Amy. She ordered I dunno, 5/6 slices of raw fish (a mixture of salmon and something they call white tuna/butterfish???) for RM20

Raw fish…they sliced it rather thickly I think

I chose the white tuna slice as Amy said the salmon has a slight fish smell to it. I attempted to nibble a bit off the edge, but to no avail. I couldn’t even bite it off no matter how hard I tried as it was uncooked meat. Hence, I shoved the whole piece in my mouth and chewed and chewed and chewed for what seemed like eternity. Um…it tasted sort of odd. Amy, on the other hand was making these sounds like she was eating little slices of heaven itself lol and I swallowed the remaining chunk of fish in my mouth using what I’d ordered for lunch and cold green tea…

Some beef thing Amy had…the set came with rice, miso soup and slices of fruit for RM20++ I think?

  Potatoes munching on edamame happily…

Time to dig in! Rawr!!! *Amy attacks food* Heehee!


*watches Amy attacking food* =P

Had the Chicken Katsu Curry which also comes with miso soup and fruit slices (I think that’s what the name is?). I loooove Japanese curry. It’s so thick..yum! Cost me RM18 though. I’m broke T.T

After a hearty meal, we decided to go to Ipoh Parade for awhile, and on the way there Amy decided to stop at Canning Garden to pick up her favorite (according to her, THE best) Yau Char Kwai (Chinese Crullers) and banana fritters. Got some fried sweet potato slices (or was it tapioca) for my parents too…but it was kind of oily according to my parents. The store is situated in a coffee shop around the corner of Canning Garden if anyone wants to know…it’s along the main road. I’m sure everyone knows where it is anyway…

Oh yes, and somehow after a walk and a snack at Kopitiam Junction in Parade, Amy whisked us off to Funny Mountain Tau Fu Fah. It’s situated near Foh San restaurant at Osbourne Street (Jalan Tahwil Azar). A bowl of tau fu fah only costs RM0.80 and you can even have them bring it in a bowl to your car like a drive-in delivery service! It is served steaming hot and it has a very smooth texture. Very yummy…turns out this place is quite popular despite its modest appearance.

Haha how we ended up driving all over town for a jalan-jalan cari makan trip I do not know…I was so stuffed I ended up skipping dinner. o_o But it was a blast, nonetheless. Hehe thanks Amy for driving around…we should do it again sometime ^_^