Ooh I read about it in the entertainment news. :P Nicole Kidman looks very elegant. I remember in an old interview, Tom said that when he first laid eyes on Nicole in her first movie Dead Calm, it was “instant lust” lol~ The first Mission Impossible was quite entertaining but I hated the sequel. It was overblown with Tom Cruise ego-centric scenes. Sheesh, so I didn’t bother with the third one when it came out.

That’s true ^^ maturity, sensitivity and stability definitely makes for an enduring relationship. Hehehe yeah and in the photos they were in their prime and look so young kekeke xD

Yep, joining a class may be a motivating factor cos it is a structured way to learn the language and you’ll be more disciplined too. Embarrassingly, my current Japanese language learning is mostly from listening to BLCD (LOL In the end I’ve only become really good at identifying the XXYYZZ terms in the H-scenes *dies*) and anime/manga. Oh yes the language tapes help too.

The only movie I’ve watched that starred Penelope Cruz was an acclaimed art house foreign film called “All about my Mother”. We rented it during one of the movie marathons we did. And all of us fell asleep. xD

Is it a happy-ending movie? The movie is so theatrical. sometimes i wonder if i can enjoy tht movie despite the lavish sets etc etc.
I also have problem while watching Sweeney Todd, too many singing can make me bored. XD

I never heard of that speculation before but Nicole as a natural beauty is far better without Tom. As for Tom, *yawns* is greater movies are in the past. These days his movies are plain and not-convincing.
I haven’t forgive him for bringing Mission Impossible series into lousy trilogy.

Romantic standard is in the eye of beholder. Most important is to love each other till the end. It’s pretty annoying to have an absolute romantic guy, kinda makes you feel uneasy too.
I know girls usually dreamed of romantic guy but they probably realize that maturity, sensitivity and stability are lot better as they got older.
Ha-Ha that’s very sweet. It’s simple but meaningful. I might suggest your mom-dad method to my hubby.

Impressive but so far i haven’t made an effort yet to be able to speak at least 4 languages. Taking language course is probably a great idea, maybe being in a class can motivate me heh?
Watching fforeign movie (such as Taxi) can also help, spanish movie i dunno anything about it, i wouldn’t wanna watch one if Penelope Cruz is in it.

Nah no worries about the Moulin Rouge movie. The plot is quite predictable. We’re only watching it for the actors and lavish sets and costumes heh. The singing was ok. Yea I fell victim to the high expectation syndrome again. lol~

I think most of us sympathised with Nicole. There were speculations that Tom divorced her just before their 10 yr anniversary so that he can avoid a law where the man must give his spouse financial support for the rest of her life if their marriage crosses the 10 year mark. That’s kinda sad if it was true.

Ewan McGregor… another cutie keke. XD

Hahaha… yah! If not you wouldn’t be happily married to ur hubby. XD Many SG guys are car maniacs.

I don’t find my parents very romantic at all :P but they’re kinda cute cos my dad keeps a photo of my mum in his wallet while my mum keeps one of his in hers. I think those photos were exchanged during their courtship. Behind the photo they wrote something like… To my [mum's name]… xD

Yeah would be nice to receive love letters… something that is not virtual lol~

Woah, that’s pretty impressive. I think you really do have a flair for languages lo… it is not too late la hehehe.

Yea i understand the ‘made in china’ issue…but you really cannot avoid tht if buying things in Japan. XD you have better chance in France. ^^

I’m totally blind about the movie so i better dig up some info about it. My poor knowledge only stretch to the lavish set, wardrobes and all tht singing thing.
Nicole Kidman is very hot (her career boost up after her divorce with Tom, don’t ya think?) and i forgot about Ewan McGregor.
*blushed* When Moulin Rouge aired in local cinema, i remember i was dating a younger guy just graduate from his school in SG. I broke with him (no, he dumped me) but in the end i’m grateful because i cannot have long-term relationship with car-mania guy with Cantonese pop taste. XD

kekekeke..i think my parent far from being romantic these days.
I often heard my mom complained tht her hubby is like a baby. She told me tht they met in a post office in Seoul. At tht time my dad is living in Japan and went to Korea for some reason. (Sshh..my mom kept dad’s love letters in biscuit box)

Love letters is getting old huh? now everything is e-mail or text msg..

e veramente cattivo mean really bad-that’s far as i can remember.
Sometimes i can convert certain Italian word into Spanish, such as libro (spanish-book) into libri (italian), (maybe the word ‘library’ came form latin.)
then ‘white’ in french is ‘blanc’ in spanish is ‘blanco’ in italian is ‘bianco/bianca’
etc etc…

I bought French Language Language Kit (CD and Books) two years ago and so far i managed to tell everybody in French who my neighbors are. XD
During high school i was recommended to study languages because i’m adapt to language easily, meaning i have talent to understand and have pretty lethal memory for vocabulary.
but i kinda dismissed the recommendation because i really dunno what to do by learning so many languages.

Regret always comes too late.

We made sure to choose the magnets that were “Made in France” ^^” cos there were a lot of souvenirs there that printed Made in China. Seems like a bit cheap thrill but that was the whole point of buying the magnets… lol~ Die die must be MADE IN FRANCE!!! XD since they are similar in price anyway.

The trip was around 2003 I think… I can’t remember exactly. The brain is not a very reliable thing isn’t it ^^ I dunno where I put the photos. Have to go and dig out.

I heard that they sometimes need to perform maintenance on the Mona Lisa painting… so you’re right ^^ I guess we can be considered lucky to be able to see it. To enjoy the museum to the fullest, one day is simply not enough. When we saw an outdoor cafe at the museum after walking for hours, we were so relieved. Legs were aching like mad. So we sat down and had some coffee. The breads were good ^^ The motel we stayed at served them for breakfast xD

Moulin Rouge was filmed at the actual site. We could also see the building across the street where Ewan Mcgregor’s character in the movie stayed in. It was beautifully filmed. Very vibrant and art house hehe. But I think it was very hyped up and I had too high expectations of it.

Wah… your parents very romantic wor… :3 and the open seas can be really dangerous huh.

HAHAHAHA okie… yah knowing how to say “I cannot speak” and “Where is the toilet” is very important indeed. Definitely life-saving XD I think Italian is a sexy language. I think I mentioned before when we were chatting at your blog? What does e veramente cattivo mean?

Whoa, that certainly is a colorful trip. Visiting Louvre is an amazing experience and i’d like to explore the museum thoroughly one day.
So trip to Paris is not long ago? after all Moulin Rouge is err in 2001?
I dunno that there is real ‘Moulin Rouge’ with all that windmill-stuff, it’s probably becoz i dun watch the movie and dun pay attention to any facts surrounded the movie.

From what i heard Monalisa is not available for public viewing everyday, i dunno if it’s true or not but i think you cannot explore Louvre in just one day.
I imagine that you oredi taste the real ‘croissant’ Ha-Ha it’s my fave pastry (or bread?)

The fascinating part of his story is during the ship is taken hostage by Phillipines rebel army or how he met my mom in Korea. other stories seems bundled up tight in dad memory.
He didn’t collect souvenirs from all of the countries he visited but my mom collect the stamps, money, coins and dad’s love letters. XD

Japanese or Korean for survival means i mastered the language of asking where toilet direction is and able to say not able to speak Japanese/Korean.
i think i’ve known many languages for saying, “sorry, i cannot speak….”
Most of the time, i use my Japanese or Korean for asking help or short statement. Never try to speak in rapid Japan/Korean to me XD
The problem with Korean is i know how to say it but dunno how to write in, cursing word is for saying ‘stupid’, ‘dog’, ‘shit’, the usual profanity. :P
sometimes it helpful and other times i got scolded by my mom.

Yes, understand mandarin characters can help in learning kanji.
So far my italian is still in the closet and not yet useful, e veramente cattivo!

We also went to the Notre Dame Cathedral and fulfilled my wish to see the gargoyle statues there ^^ I’ve always wanted to see them after I saw the photos as a teen. Half of the Cathedral was under renovation but fortunately the one I really wanted to see wasn’t affected. I was so excited about it but my friends couldn’t understand what the fuss was about hahaha. One of them thought they looked scary. I should scan my photo but am lazy. This is the pic of the gargoyle I wanted to see hehe ^^

At my insistence we also went to see the Moulin Rouge. I was fascinated by the signature windmill after watching the movie (altho I didn’t enjoy the movie as much as I thought I would :P) We didn’t go inside for a show cos it was really expensive. My friend were not comfortable there cos the place is a red light district, so we quickly took photos and left before it became too dark.

We also did the usually tourist route and went to the Eiffel Tower and Champs Elysess. There was also a beautiful musical carousel across the road from the Eiffel Tower :) We also visited a Contemporary Art Museum there too. Shopping wise, I didn’t buy anything branded like LV hahaha. The usual reality applied… not enough $ ^^ mostly we bought souvenirs like magnets and mini Eiffel Towers for friends. I also bought a gargoyle magnet for myself XD

Wow… it must be fascinating to hear about all your dad’s experiences in different countries :3 Is your mum well-travelled too? The traditions probably is due to habit XD but its kinda fun isn’t it. Yea its a little pity about the languages cos children can learn many languages really fast. I learnt elementary Japanese many years ago but I returned most of it to my sensei. Knowing Chinese does help a little when it comes to kanji ^^ hehehe… at least you know enough Japanese and Korean for survival XD What are the curse words in Korean?

My dad is an officer in some sort of cargo ship vessel. He able to tell us everything except Switzerland coz they dun have ocean XD but it kinda makes him so full of experiences and not wanting go anywhere after becoming family man.
He lived in Japan for couple of years (before met my mom in Seoul) so he able to read, write, speak fluently in Japanese and we still have those Japanese-family tradition for no reason LOL, like we dun eat in ‘real’ dining table but using Japanese dining table (sit on the floor) etc etc.

Too bad he didn’t taught me Japanese, except for the word, “once upon a time”
My mom didn’t taught me Korean too coz she’s too busy learning Indonesian lang during her stay here..
In the end my parent taught me english first so i’m bit late in studying Indonesian lang.
I may have lousy grammar but i think i’m doin better than most Indonesian who speak english and i dun have wonky accent when speaking english.
Nobody in my family speaks Chinese, and judging from my business it’ll be better for me to study Japanese than Mandarin.
Most Japanese/Korean language i know is for survival only *including cursing somebody* XD

Wow… that’s like… amazing :O was it due to business travelling?

Yep… but it is interesting to hear different opinions about SG… cos being born and raised here, there are things that we are already so used to, we take it for granted heh… The international events for instance. I think we are so caught up by the daily grind, we don’t really pay attention to the happenings unless they affect us.

Yea probably small country syndrome XD eat-shop-work.
i’ve been fascinated by SG since 2001, i find it as a ideal place to live.
There’s also possibility than i’ll ended up bored living in SG becoz have to live in flat/apt but so far i find it convenient to live in small and clean country.
SG is also the place that never dies with so many international events.

Hehehe I remember our electricity bills were crazy during winter cos of the heaters we switched on in order to keep warm.

Arrgghh~ I can’t remember! I think I may still have the postcard somewhere. Oh a little tidbit from watching a travel program. If we visit the Effiel Tower, we should post a postcard or letter from there because the stamp chop would be that of the Effiel Tower! I so regret not knowing this before I visited the place last time :(

What stamp set you like to get? No worries, just let me know ^_^)v

Hahaha… you can also get fat living in SG XD Eating and shopping are probably the most common past times here, followed by movie watching. I guess there’re pros and cons of living here :) but I appreciate that SG is a relatively safe place. Hehe… I think maybe if you do live here for a longer period of time maybe it’ll just be like another city? Anyway, home is still the best place to be :3

Hmm..my friend in Melb said it’s damn cold but maybe it’s becoz he dun wear socks XD

Do you noticed the stamp? Stamps from European country are very nice.
SG have nice stamps too (saw on SG post website). If you come here can i ask favor to buy me certain stamp set from SG post?if you have paypal account i can pay in advance before you take visit to the P.O

Can get fat if living in Taiwan. XD
SG have night markets too, or am i wrong? I heard Orchard is 24/7 and SG is also one of top shopping destination (even for Indonesians), must be good living in a country like that.
Couple of years ago i was thinking seriously of living in SG, now it’s a small possibility but maybe someday i can buy apartment or condo in SG (when i’m filthy rich) so i always have place to stay and go to SG anytime with no worries of accommodation.
I dunno why but i think living in SG is fascinating..*envy*

Yup… my friend said that the weather is very erratic there this year. Summer wasn’t hot, and winter not cold. Its quite disturbing in a way.

She sent me a postcard before. There are 4 cartoon sheeps, each one in a different season and all the seasons are rainy and gloomy except snow in winter lol~

I think China and HK probably have it. Yep the night markets in Taiwan has some of the best and cheap foods ^^ one stomach is not enough to try them all.

Nope, top lodaing will ruin your clothes sooner than front one..the best is front loading.
the loading position have big effect in the way the machine works (washing and spinning), clothes are less-wrinkled if you using front-one. that’s why front loading washing machine is more expensive than the top one.

That’s wise rather than have problems with deposit thing. the mass-cleaning idea came up becoz we have friends who cannot afford such things (live in Oz coz scholarship only) so we kinda try to find some mutual activity. the result is not bad and we try to have fun while doing it.
(heard in news that it’s flood is Brissy)

Yea, it will be hot living there. is living expenses in UK high? so it’s true that UK have constant dark grey skies. No wonder they always in the dire need of a hot cup of tea.

Do they have pork burger in China or HK? a friend told me that Taiwan have many delicious cheap food.

The washing machine we had was front-loaded. Does top-loading machines produce less wrinkled laundry? :O

That sounds fun too hahaha :D my friend suggested it cos previously she had a bad experience with a rental company and they made it difficult for her to get the deposit back. So she figured might as well just engage an appointed cleaner and get it over and done with the first time.

Yeah its pretty cool but she hates the weather there tho’ cos it is always gloomy. You’ll be happy there cos you can watch live soccer matches right haha XD

Pork is the top meat consumed in Taiwan ^^ yeah… it was. Sars reminded me of the bio-terror movie Outbreak.

Actually, we take turns in helping whenever a lease is out. we’re all be grateful if we can spare some $, the idea came up from me and cousin XD

UK eh? whoa cool eh…

Pork seems reasonable consider that Taiwan also have case of bird flu.
Do you remember SARS outbreak years ago? scary.

lol~ nah think positive. Your charm made them do it XD Mmm we hired the appointed cleaning service cos we wanted to be sure of no rejections and save the trouble hehe.

Yea, same for me also… I was quite disappointed…

Mmm permanently… 1 US, 1 Oz and 1 UK. All of them are married (All SG girls. 1 married a Caucasian US citizen and the other 2 to S’poreans) and doing pretty well. I don’t have close relatives who moved overseas :)

Yesh~ pork burger lol~ I’ve not tried it the last time I visited tho. I only saw it on MTV Chinese which showed Taiwan TV ads occasionally. Looks quite yummy :9

Oh yeah, the lease-thing…i did that too but it’s not a cleaning service from agency. i gathered all my friends to help me do massive cleaning. Slavery still exist these days XD

When i was a kid, the future for me is in the year 2000 but now it’s 2008 and not many differences except the phenomena of global warming.
I used to imagine that in 2000 there will be flying cars but none so far…

Do you have a friend/relatives who move out from SG permanently?to Europe or US? how’s life down there for them?

*idiotic smile plastered on Akiyama’s face* McD have pork on the menu? They dun have pork-thing in here (yea with Moslem as majority no way they sell pork)
Wow, i never been to Taiwan so this fact is very much new for me. You ever try pork menu from McD?

Yup. Hopefully they do it properly. It’ll be a pity if they didn’t. The Jetsons concept would be so grand~ I wonder if it’ll happen in the future ^^

Must have been hard for her… If there wasn’t language barrier… I guess if I have to move to a foreign country, it won’t be so bad. If not, the transition would probably be harder.

Hehehe… you’ll be surprised! McDonald’s adapts to local culture! They don’t sell pork here (cos they want business from our Malay friends) but they do so in Taiwan. So I think they sell other types of meat instead of beef in India.

I don’t reject the idea of good public transportation and i always have hopes for Indo but so far the idea of good public service doesn’t get t the govt thick head.
Sounds like railway tracks toy only this is real ones, right? Sheesh! wasting lots of money. I think same thing gonna happen to monorail plan in here. They should study from jetson’s movie XD

That’s true. See it in my mom.
It kinda different with SG which is a bit similar in geography, so if you marry a Japanese dude he probably didn’t wanna move out to SG because it’s as crowded as Japan.

Whoa, i tot they dun drink the milk too. Misconception of all these years.
I suppose they dun have mcDonald there…^^