So today I found myself listening to Deft Punk's soundtrack for Tron: Legacy, this led to me watching the movie and I've now decided I rather like both of them.
It's strange how someone's opinion about a movie can change, the first time I saw the movie I thought it was ok but nothing special, I enjoyed it a little more the second time around and today I really enjoyed it, maybe I was just in the right kind of mood.
Today I got to spend the day with my Dad for Father's Day. We originally planned to hang out a few days ago on Saturday but that didn't work out and I was booked on Sunday so we opted to hang out on Monday.
Got to his place around 1 and we headed out to lunch. My dad wanted to take me to this steakhouse that he really enjoys called Lone Star Steakhouse. And with most steakhouses it was fantastic. I got BBQ chicken and steak.. very tasty.
Afterwards we headed to the movie theater. My dad rarely goes to the movies so this was a treat for him. We were going to see Man of Steel. I saw it a few days ago and loved it and I figured my dad would love it as well since I got alot of my geeky love of things from him.
As expected my Dad loved Man of Steel, said he loved it as much as Dark Knight (and he LOVES Dark Knight, so that's saying something). I enjoyed Man of Steel even more a second time and I can't wait to see it again, hopefully in an IMAX theater.
After the movie we went to the store to pick up some things my Dad needed before heading home. Once home my brother, sister-in-law, nephew and niece were home so I got to visit with them. Lora and Molly shortly left after I arrived so I spent most of my time with my brother Michael and Kenobi. Dad went to lay down and rest.
I love playing with my nephew Kenobi, he's four and it so much fun to do things with. We played with cars and then mega blocks. He put on his Superman onsie pj's that I got for him for his birthday and flew around the house for a bit.
Around 8pm I said my goodbyes and headed home. It was a great day spent with my Dad for Father's Day and and extra special day as I got to spend some time with my brother and his family. All in all it was a fantastic day.
You know what? I wish there were more Asian film festivals or a cinema dedicated only to Eastern Asian films in London (if there are cinemas I haven't seen any in Central London). I think I would go there every month if that were the case! ^_^
My SG4 phone had some good pictures (which I didn't back up using Google+), but unfortunately it was stolen, so for this post I have added some film trailers from YouTube and some backup pictures I had already uploaded elsewhere... (I'm lucky to have had a bit of graphics training!)...
Screenshot picture of The Prince Charles Cinema that I managed to grab from my Instagram online...
So it's my first time going to this film festival, which I believe started in 2009 and this year it ended on June 15th 2013. Originally I was going to watch three films, but the one on the Friday was at a time I couldn't make. :( So I booked two films - The Berlin File and The Bullet Vanishes. One Korean one Chinese... But then I got a message from a Twitter follower @gwai_zhi whose friend said that The Story of Yonosuke was a good movie. So I booked for that one too!! ^_^ One Japanese, one Korean and one Chinese (Cantonese version)!!
I went on the third day into the film festival. The first film I watched was The Story of Yonosuke. This film is based in the year of 1987, where a young guy named Yonosuke Yokomichi arrives in Tokyo to go to university and meets all these different people during his time there. During the film it flashes forward into the future of his friends when they all start remembering him. I thought the film was quite hilarious for a Japanese film, as most of the Japanese films I have seen are either scary, very dramatic or a bit boring. It was a sad ending for the main character, and it's too bad we didn't see what his future consisted of, but for his friends he met during univeristy, they did ok! I'm not spoiling the rest of the film. So you must watch it. :D
In between the next film I had 3 hours to spare so I went out to eat at Tokyo Diner (that will be in the next post) and then I looked around...
The second movie I watched was The Berlin File during that evening. This time a Korean movie. OMG!! This film is amazing. It's about a North Korean spy who gets set up and is said to be a traitor to his mother country by another North Korean spy! Wow!! There were elements of a James Bond style versus The Bourne Identity type of movie with loads of kung fu fighting and guns. An aspiring film methinks. There was a lot of conspiracy, betrayal and treachery, and I loved it (well it is mainly based on North Korea versus South Korea, and mainly about weapon exchange and secret bank accounts... Woooo)! There was also some humour from the guy playing the South Korean detective who reminded me of the character Colombo with his squinty eyes and long jacket but he had a cigarette instead of a cigar... It was all shot in Berlin too. :)
The director of the film Ryoo Seung-Wan gave an interview at the end of the film. I was actually quite surprised that he was there!! ^_^ There was a question from the audience asking if there would be a sequel to The Berlin File as it was an open ending, and the director said no there won't be, he wants it left to the audience's imagination. This question has been asked a lot in South Korea too!! Heheheh... Aww, that's a shame! Thankfully I had a backup picture of the interview!
Ryoo Seung-Wan being interviewed at the Terracotta Film Festival 2013 - sorry for the bad quality!
Anyway, after the interview, we all left, and I was quite close to the director... He is quite short. And for some reason I don't get star struck, and I didn't ask for his autograph... Anyway, I took a picture of him and his interpreter as they were going out...
Ryoo Seung-Wan and his interpreter making a move to the party that night
During this second film I watched a clip of A Werewolf Boy (another Korean movie), so when I got home I booked a ticket for this film too!!! Hahahaha... So I have ended up watching four films two weekends ago... ^_^
***
On the fourth day of the festival, I of course went to watch A Werewolf Boy. Not many people went to watch this film. This is quite a hilarious film at the start where a family move to the countryside as the eldest daughter of the family had lung problems. She meets a boy who grew up there, but doesn't know he is a werewolf when he becomes angry. Plus he was an experiment of the previous owner of the house... Can't spoil too much of the film as you should definitely watch it. But be aware, it will set you off in tears towards the end of the movie... I could hear a lot of women crying, and the guy who sat in front of me, I could see him wipe a few tears away!! It's a must-watch film for all the emotional geeks out there!! T_T ... As I understand a bit of Korean, I noticed some of the subtitling was missing... Like when the girl says Oppa (meaning elder brother) that wasn't translated, it's probably just to simplify the film and make people read quickly...
The last film for me was The Bullet Vanishes starring Lau Ching Wan and Nicholas Tse as the supporting actor. For me this was a typical Hong Kong style movie of fighting, slowing motion scenes, a bit of love and drama. Subtitling was a bit bad (although I wasn't paying too much attention to it). Don't understand why translators have to cut the actual meaning of a sentence. Didn't like too much of the dubbing used, as they hardly synced with the actor's and actresses' lips (you can see this in the trailer below). I felt in this film that the supporting actor Nicholas Tse was more of the lead actor as he seemed to have got all the best scenes especially with the love scenes with Yumiko Chen. So any Nicholas Tse fans out there, you will love this film...!! Lau Ching Wan is always great. I've watched him in lots of HK TVB dramas, so I know his acting skills are always in tip top shape. ^_^ The Bullet Vanishes was felt to be like a Sherlock Holmes mystery in the film industry. It is. But a bit more adventurous in terms of there being more of Watson than there was of Sherlock. ¬,¬" The film is also similar to Johnathan Creek, the British TV drama show... Work out the mystery, and tell us about how you solved it in your own time kind of film...!!
All in all, it was a very good weekend, until I was pick pocketed (that's what I really believe, but I may have dropped it, and that person felt that he/she didn't want to return it). My brand new Samsung SG4 (only used for 3 weeks) was "lost" not "stolen" according to the police, as I have no proof to say it was stolen... Anyway, a replacement phone is on its way and I already have my replacement SIM card... Just a shame that I have lost all the pictures!! And as much as I love China Town, pay a lot of attention to the people surrounding you, take care of your belongings and DON'T show off your brand new items even if it is in the cinema!! Pickpockets live in the West End! T_T
First of all Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful Dad's out there.. I hope to join your ranks in the not to far future. I was suppose to hang out with my dad yesterday but he forgot and made plans. I could have seen him for a few hours but the fact that it takes me two hour to drive there and 2 hours to get home I didn't want to be on the road longer then I would be visiting. So I made plans to hang out with him tomorrow.
Today was D&D (Pathfinder). We planned to start early as it's our friend and fellow player Luis' birthday and we planned to do dinner and cake afterwards. So I got to Dallas' place around 1:45, well ahead of the 2pm start time. Unfortunately not many others showed up on time. I don't think we actually got started with the game until around 3:30 (which just happens to be our normal start time).
Lot's of battling was happening and I was having a blast until I rolled a 1 and my very nice and fancy Quarter staff was snapped in half (btw that is my main weapon, being a Wizard). I then rolled another 1 and had a critical fail which in turn made me stab my own hand with my dagger. Of course I couldn't roll a 1 again.. I mean three times in one session is impossible.. well not for me. Luckily nothing broke this time.. but the fact that I tried to throw an enchanted coin away from the group and instead it bounced off the wall and went right back into the middle of the group wasn't good.
The worse part of this session was being attacked and took 14 hit points. My hit points for my character are 8 and I was down one from the hand stabbing earlier..so this hit brought me down to -7. I was unconscious and near death for about an hour (well in D&D time it was about 10 hours). No one was able to heal me but lucky for me they were able to stabilized me so at least I wasn't going to lose 1 hit point per round.. but I wasn't out of the woods yet. So I laid there dying while everyone else fought. Calvis avenged my near death stabbing by killing the person who almost killed me with one blow. Everyone rested and soon they were able to heal the wounded. I was healed back up to 0 and finally back up to 7 before we took on the big bad. This session ended on a cliffhanger and I can't wait to play in two weeks to see what happens.
That was a close call for Dash, I don't like the idea of a character in D&D actually dying and not being able to play them again. I mean you put all this work in a character and they can actually die. Not a fan of that rule. Anyways at around 7:45 we finished D&D and headed over to Pitfire Pizza for dinner. It was fun walking over there as it's a good mile or so away and there was a group of 12 or 13 of us. We got there ordered and ate for the next few hours. We haven't done a big group outing like this in a while so it was nice hanging with everyone. When we were done most of us headed back to Dallas and Jes' place and we surprised Luis with a yummy Birthday cake. We sang Happy Birthday, ate cake and chatted for another hour. Finally around 11pm I called it a night and headed home. It was another awesome D&D session and a fun dinner with friends. Thanks all. And Thanks for not letting my little Halfling Wizard die.
As my phone was taken away from me last weekend (stolen I bet), most of the pictures on there were supposed to be for this blog. So unfortunately you're going to view a mini essay here instead. :(
Tai Tip Mein (大碟麵 daai dip min) has been around the Elephant and Castle area for many years. The very first branch was opened where the Strata Building is now and was called Tai Won Mein (大碗麵 daai wun min - "Big bowl of noodles"), and had then moved into Newington Butts where the restaurant currently is. Tai Tip Mein means "Big plate of noodles". It used to be a very popular venue for the locals, and I think it still is!! ^_^ It's cheap and the waiters / waitresses speak Cantonese, Mandarin and English. There is also another branch called by its old name Tai Won Mein in North Greenwich which a little pretty store methinks, and it almost looks like the original one. I think I went to the original place many years ago with my mum, and then started going there another few more times before it closed...
Took this when I was on the bus with my ancient Nokia phone - Tai Tip Mein from the outside... a 3.2 MP camera is not bad!
My mum took me to this place two Friday evenings ago. It took me a little while to decide what to order because I haven't had their main menu for a while. In the end I ordered the Fried Noodles with King Prawns, and my mother ordered the Wanton Noodle Soup. This restaurant is quite unique compared to other noodle bars and restaurants, as you have to PAY first (you had to the same in the original restaurant). My mum and the waitress were gossiping, and the reason why you have to pay first is because there have been people who eat and then leave without paying. (If you are searching for a cashpoint: there are two at the entrance of Elephant and Castle Tube Station. There's a Santander (Abbey National) on the lower ground floor of Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre. One outside Tesco inside the shopping centre... And if I remember correctly there might be a bank on the first floor... Maybe...).
Took this on 28/06/2013 - Inside Tai Tip Mein
Unfortunately they don't do crispy noodles (which are obviously my favourite), and here's the only picture I have from that day... Just a screenshot from my Intagram which can view online...
Fried Noodles with King Prawns
My noodles were smothered with soy sauce. I don't seem to understand why people like to cover their food with soy sauce. It's too much for me , but I ate all of it. I was hungry, very hungry, and I didn't want to disappoint my mum who was paying!! Fortunately the king prawns compensated for the noodles. They were definitely fresh. I also had a piece of wanton from my mum's noodle soup, and it was very delicious. Very plain and not salty, and are also hand made in Tai Tip Mein. She added some chilli oil into hers to spice it up. There was a lot of wanton in it. It's a shame I have no picture of it...
So. A very short post. If I go there again I will add more pictures to this post!! Total cost came to about £12-£13 including drinks... (cheaper than aobaba!!) Oh yeah, I forgot to mention there's an all-you-can-eat buffet on the lower ground part. I think it's about £7.50 per person. Drinks cost extra of course... It's too bad I dislike buffets!!!
My geeky rating: 4/5
Good points:
- Very speedy service
- Noodle bar setting (so you might end up sharing a whole long table with someone)
- Wanton tasted good!
- Cheap place to eat Chinese food
Bad points:
- Too much soy sauce in my noodles
Address: 15 Elephant and Castle London SE1 6TE Telephone: 020 7701 6788
Nothing much happen today.. I continued painting the trim on the side of the house. Did the whole on and off again thing, took an hour to tape it all off (my least favorite part), then break, then painted half of it, then break, then painted other half, then break then second coat and touch up and that was it for painting today. Did I mention it was in the high 90's. But again I'm doing it a little at a time. I'm hoping to have all my window trim done by the end of the week. Then there is a trimming of around the roof and finally the main color going all over the house. Oh then I get to do it again on my garage. But slow and steady wins the race or in my case, newly painted house and garage I'll have.
Living rural I tend to get pests in the house, mostly rats, mice and ants. Luckily I haven't had many rats or mice in a good year or so but I feel like ants are getting worse. Today I got up and there had to be a hundred of them in my kitchen pantry. They ran down the wall across my dining room floor and into my guest bathroom. I quickly grabbed the raid only find out that it was empty (I tend to use it alot). I then grabbed my keys and drove to my local supermarket and purchased a can of way over priced raid. I got home and for the next ten minutes sprayed every inch of my pantry across my hardwood floor in the dining room and into my bathroom. Lucky for me none of the ants got into any of my food, not sure what they were going for... I hate ants, especially as it gets hotter as they tend to move inside the house more.
Speaking of nuisance I have prairie dogs/gophers/ground squirrels (not sure exactly what they are) but they are digging up my yard and between them and the rabbits they're creating so many holes in the ground. The worse part is they are starting to damage my trees and plants. I've spread small animal repellent dirt around the yard but that's not really working. I guess I can go with poison but then with my luck they will all die under my house and it will smell for weeks.... Ugh!!!
I love living out here in the middle of nowhere but I really can't wait to get this place fixed up, on the market and sold!!!
My last post on the snacks I got from Dallas, and what not best to end this with four bars of chocolate. ^_^
I only ate half of all of these, and I guess I will save them for tomorrow or during the week...
My four chocolate bars - not finished (I am not that greedy!)
So the first one is this Butterfinger Crisp. I've never come across this before, and thought I have to try it out! When I opened it, I didn't realise it came in two pieces. It was very tightly packed, and gave the impression of there being only one bar.
Butterfinger Crisp
Two pieces of Butterfinger Crisp
And when I split one piece into two, you will see this wafer biscuit which is covered in chocolate. Looks like a Kit Kat chunky, but there is a big difference to this. The chocolate is not that thick, and the wafer is very sweet, which I think is typical of a Nestle chocolate. It has this nutty taste to it too. I think these are quite nice! And I would buy it again.
A lot of wafer in this!
Next is this chocolate bar called Oh Henry! which is also from Nestle. Mr Bear mentioned this before I had went away, so I thought I must find this one. This also came as a double mini bar.
Oh Henry! Chocolate bar
Single mini bar of Oh Henry!
I'm glad I did! It's a chocolate bar with caramel with peanuts and fudge in 2 separate layers. This one is not too sweet, and it tastes milk chocolate-ty. The caramel lasts in your mouth which is what I liked from this... A must try!! This makes me wonder who Henry was, and why it's called Oh Henry! My curiosity streak strikes!
So much caramel!!
Now for these two Snicker bars... I haven't seen these in the UK before/yet (have they been out here already? ... don't think so). So one is Dark Snickers, and the other is Almond Snickers.
The Dark one is a normal Snickers bar but covered with dark chocolate. ¬,¬ Nothing too special about this really... But it does take a while for the dark chocolate to sink in. It's not as dark as the chocolate you would find in the UK. So if you don't like too much bitter dark chocolate you will be happy not to taste in this Snickers bar.
Snickers Dark
It's not too dark really
But this Almond one is yummy!! Underneath the milk chocolate is a normal Snickers bar filling, but instead of peanuts, there's almonds. Ummmmmmm. I would definitely want more of these. Very almond-y in taste.
Snickers Almond
Yummy almonds are inside!!
It seems Americans like nutty foods a lot. Most of my posts seem to have something nutty about them! I guess we all like nuts as it contains some nutritional stuff in them as well as being tasty. :D
Anyway, I hope to review more American type of snacks in the nearest future. (^_^)v
After the movie we went to the store to pick up some things my Dad needed before heading home. Once home my brother, sister-in-law, nephew and niece were home so I got to visit with them. Lora and Molly shortly left after I arrived so I spent most of my time with my brother Michael and Kenobi. Dad went to lay down and rest.
Today was D&D (Pathfinder). We planned to start early as it's our friend and fellow player Luis' birthday and we planned to do dinner and cake afterwards. So I got to Dallas' place around 1:45, well ahead of the 2pm start time. Unfortunately not many others showed up on time. I don't think we actually got started with the game until around 3:30 (which just happens to be our normal start time).
