Monthly Archive for March, 2007

Alrightee, this is my last chance. I joined a pilipala click click contest a few weeks/months back from April Cherrie’s blog in a bid to win a hosting package so I could perhaps donate it to an organisation that needs it more than me.

It is a pretty simple contest actually, all I need to do is to put up the logo/banner/ad/whatever (below) in my blog and start clicking away. A tracker will then start counting the number of clicks and the one with the most clicks will win a hosting and domain name package.

So here is the little problem, I have gotten so busy (or lazy) that I completely ignored the logo/banner/ad/whatever and didn’t make enough clicks to perhaps even warrant a third prize. So now I have the next few hours (until midnight on 1 April) to get enough clicks and get something.

So erm..this is my cry for help!! Do me a favour and start clicking away please

Lyn (my boo) and I were invited to the media invite of Shooter starring Mark Walberg and Danny Glover yesterday. Although I am always game for an action movie anytime (coz I am a guy right?), I can never catch them with Lyn considering that she would prefer romance or comedy. But since this one is complimentary, I guess she must have figured “Ah what the heck!! Why not?”.

I am not really good as a movie critic, not because I can’t express my opinion of the movie well, but rather the fear that it would end up as a spoiler instead (you can check out the synopsis below). So I am just going to conclude that if you like movies that pay their pyrotechnics crew alot of money to keep their explosive scenes pretty constant all the time and/or if you like being kept at the edge of your seat for the next 2hrs or so, this may be the show for you.

My verdict? Say about three nachos out of five (with cheese of course) and oh coke too…I need my coke…

Media previews are usually free seating, so we gotta do what they do at Tiger Airways..rush to the seats

Shooter Synopsis - Taken from Tribute.ca

Bob Lee Swagger (Mark Wahlberg) is a former Marine Corps sniper who thought he had walked away from the job forever after a devastating betrayal. Now, despite having sequestered himself in a remote mountain hideaway, Bob is approached by retired Colonel Isaac Johnson (Danny Glover), who tells him the country desperately needs him. As Johnson tells it, an assassination attempt on the President of the United States is imminent and only Swagger’s lethal skills and savvy expertise in long-range ballistics can halt the threat.

Swagger reluctantly agrees one last time to serve his country — but what he doesn’t know is that the entire mission is a set-up by a dark government cabal with its own agenda. By the time Swagger realizes the event has been rigged, it’s too late. Suddenly, he finds himself in the headlines as the lone gunman who tried to shoot the President.

Hunted at every turn, with nowhere to hide and no one to help him except a mystified woman he’s just met (Kate Mara) and a novice FBI agent risking his career (Michael Peña), Swagger is in a desperate battle which will put everything he knows to the test. The clock is ticking as he tries to figure out who the real hit men are before they hit him. But Swagger soon realizes even more than his own survival is at stake — because he’s about to lift the veil off a devastating conspiracy at the very heart of American power.

Day 6 was pretty much a day of shopping for us. But before that, we had a couple of hours of hotspring session at Xinbeitou before heading to another shopping area selling overrun branded clothes (I can’t for the life of me remember what that place is).

Upset with the number of economical and nice clothes available there, we headed back to Wufenpu for a second visit and returning to the hotel with many good deals. After a quick short break back at the hotel, we took to a nearby street hawker selling handmade noodels with pigs intestines. I have said it and will say it again, street hawkers rawks!! These are the type of places you can have truly authentic food and worth the aftermath bowel obstruction (if any).

oh you beautiful pig intestine noodles you…

A second visit to Shilin was next in our itinerary in our quest for more food and shopping. Three lighters, four pairs of shoes, and about three bags later (or so I recall), we headed to the night market for another round of food food food.

Beef!! Not as nice as Ian’s cooking tho…but can lah.

Our last activity ended after supper at Shilin Night, when we made our way to a 24 hour massage area at about 2am. Yes I would love to spend the second last day of my trip in Taiwan with full of activities, we had to head back to the hotel for a last packing session. With all the stuffs we bought, mostly Lyn’s, it is going to be a loooooooong night before we are done with packing and getting a good rest.

Moving on, Lyn (my boo) and I lugged our luggages back to Taiwan after an eventful experience at Sun Moon Lake. But this time round, it was not as painful:

Took a straight coach from Sun Moon Lake to Dapingling MRT station in Taipei. This time, we get to seat in real comfort and watched a Karaoke and Anime series all the way back.

There at Dapingling MRT Station, we took a train to Shuanglian MRT station and after about 11 stops or so, we took a two minute walk to our hotel. That’s it…pretty much painless compared to our previous trips eh?

So after a few minutes of break at our hotel, we headed to Taipei City Mall, under Taipei main station, for some shopping. Guys…forget about going there. There will be nothing there that will ever interest us unless you like playstations and gadgets that we can already get at Lucky Plaza…but it can be a real haven for girls looking out for shoes though. Let’s say I spent a good 2 hours standing there and holding Lyn’s bag while she shopped around before we headed to Ximending.

At Ximending, we finally tasted the famous and much talked about that Ah Chung Mee Sua and are proud to report that it is…”okay only lah”. What intrigued me was there were no tables or chairs for the patrons for such a famous stall. We see hoards of people queuing and standing around with bowls of mee sua eating away in open. But hey, that could be unique eh? So we did what the Romans will do in Rome and followed suit…

Left: We can see a loooong queue for people wanting to savour the mee sua | Right: People standing around and eating outside the stall…totally unique to me

Beofre heading back to our hotel, we picked up some food from the street vendors for a little supper…it has been years since I bought anything from such stalls and to me, the experience was sheer nostalgia.

Left: 臭豆腐 (it didn’t smell that bad tho) | Right: Corn (don’t start KC!!)

Left: Gyoza | Right: Sausages