Jarod’s Den

Mum’s Birthday

Yesterday, mum celebrated her 51st birthday.

The family, consisting of mum, myself, uncle and his wife, had a simple dinner at a Taiwanese steamboat restaurant. I’m not sure if it’s authentic Taiwanese steamboat but that’s what I was told.

It has been some time since the four of us got together to have dinner. So mum’s birthday was as good an excuse as any.

The Food.

That’s the food up there. Don’t be fooled by the size of the dishes. It’s actually a lot of cabbage at the bottom that made it look like a lot. The food is pretty decent though. Everything is fresh. I had the prawns set while uncle had the beef set. Since women tend to eat less, both ladies shared the fish set.
We had a great time eating and laughing. Unlike other steamboat, this one gives each customer their own pot to cook their own food. It was quite an experience seeing how each of us cook our own food. Of course the ladies excel in this area. We guys just dumped everything into the pot. Since I had prawns, pork meatballs, and the beef and fish stolen from the others, my soup was the best. At least in my opinion since the others all claimed theirs is the best.

The Guys.

Here’s the men. Don’t ask me who he’s feeding. I can assure you it’s not me. We finished up everything. At least I finished up everything. Uncle had some pieces here and there leftover. The ladies, however, struggled to finish their shared dish.

The Gals.

As you can see, we haven’t eaten much yet but the ladies seems to be stopping already. Is it really that much food? They eat so little and yet complain the most about getting fat. I eat so much but yet can never be any where near the ‘fat‘ category.

The Weirdo.

That’s the weird uncle every family has one. You don’t? Oh…

You sure?

Overall, we had a great time. Our tummy was satisfactorily filled. Since we had no birthday cake (by choice), we went for durians. We had very, very good durians (and ridiculously expensive too!). Then we all gulped down a can of 7-UP and had a burping contest to burp out the excellent (debatable) aroma.

Yup, it was fun.

Tags: birthday, celebration, dinner, family, mum

Italy Wins!!!

I’m not a football fan. The only thing I like about Italy is the food. But for some unknown reason, I’m damn excited that Italy won! Woo hoo!!!

To the French, there’s always another World Cup. See you in South Africa. Zidane, happy retiring.

To the Malaysians, won’t be seeing you guys anywhere near World Cup but continue to enjoy it from the idiot box :P:P

Tags: football, italy, world cup

Broadway Ah Beng

Before you go What The…!? allow me to explain…

No I was not bored silly nor was I force to watch this at gun point. Yes, I made a conscious effort to buy the tickets and watched it. Despite the weird looking poster, it’s was actually quite a decent musical.

Sebastian is the lead actor and practically a one man show. Honestly speaking, I did not enjoy this as much as I thought I would. It was funny and entertaining but because it’s about an Ah Beng, more than half the dialogue was in hokkien. If you know hokkien, then this would be enjoyable to you. Else, you will only enjoy it if you get the punch lines.

I won’t say this is an excellent play but it’s entertaining to a certain extend if you don’t speak ah beng.

Tags: ah beng, hokkien, musical

July 4th

To my American friends all over the world,

Happy Independence Day!

Tags: america, independence, july 4th

Superman Returns

OMG! It’s finally here!

I saw it this afternoon. When the opening scene started and the moment the theme song began, I felt a strong emotion welling up inside me. I wanted to cry. I wanted to shout. I wanted to leap with joy.

I grew up watching all 2 of the superman movies. What? There’s more than 2? You mean the other abominations? Nope. Never saw those. You can’t make me admit that I saw those. You have to kill me first.

Bryan Singer made a good casting choice. Don’t know who he is, but Brandon Routh fits nicely into the Superman character. It helps that he looks like the original Clark Kent, Christopher Reeve. Kate Bosworth is fine as Lois Lane but I think I prefer the Teri Hatcher version. Kevin Spacey is excellent as Lex Luthor. But still I would like it better if Michael Rosenbaum played him.

Not gonna give any spoilers here. You can read it at imdb. Just suffice for you to know, this is a must-see. It stays true to the original 2 movies (of my time. I know there’s a few more before my time). The actors are great. The movie direction is great. Everything is great. Go see it.

Tags: brandon routh, movie, superman