Lust, Caution

Just returned from watching Lust Caution... yup, the full thing, not the castrated version.

After watching the full version, can't imagine the movie with all the explicit parts removed - it would become a pretty shallow piece. No depth of character without the explicits.

Anyway, watched it cos Clarisse is a big fan of Tony Leung, and so I surprised her with pre-booked tickets since last week (cinema was filled to the brim) so we got pretty good seats.

However, she gave me a shock when she came home at 2pm after taking a half day from work. I booked at marina, a stone's throw from her workplace. and she took HALF DAY. oops.

So after dinner, I found some excuse to drag her out to marina, claiming that I wanna Xmas pressie, a 4.7k Macbook Pro 17"... and... she didn't blow her top at all, much worse, she was supportive of my decision... 0_0 I was like totally wad on earth wuz happening...even when I said "but you are paying for it", she just smiled and leaned over... I totally absolutely melted there and then.

Of course I was kidding about getting a new comp.. but it did make her oblivious to e surprise.

But it was sweet to know how impossibly supportive she is. Even in the face of a totally senseless decision... should I be worried about this? Or should I not? I'm still deciding.

Anyway great movie. Congrats to Tony Leung for getting best actor, and Tang Wei for best newcomer. We both thought she deserved best actress, but can't really doubt Joan Chen as she's a veteran too. We just have to find some time to catch Home Song Stories.

Word of warning tho - Very, very, very friggin graphic. So graphic that Carina Lau walked out of the premiere with a black face. So graphic that Tang Wei's boyfriend ditched her after watching the movie.

Rewind!

Copacabana was fun, twas at one'15 marina club, which is at a very ulu end of sentosa - the east end. Where the golf resort is. It's a very atas place, with many private yachts parked by its dock, and with LCD panels in front of EVERY URINAL in the toilet... need I describe more?

But the night was fun-filled, lotsa prizes but we didn't win much, just a pair of GV gold class tix. Yes, with about 100 prizes for about 200+ employees, with the lowest being what we got and the highest being 3000 bucks travel (to anywhere of ur choice) voucher, our luck was pretty bad.

But the emcees, Daniel Ong and Jamie Yeo spiced up the night, not to mention Lucas (from down under), a middle manager sitting over at our table, made the night fun-filled, as he became the star of the night with a j-rock wig. Chatted with him quite a lot, he was more open to convo than most others. Nice chap.

We left the night at 1130pm, rushing out as the zoukout crowd came in. There were buses provided from our location to zoukout, but Clarisse was pretty worn out (she wuz sick the day before), so we just headed home, witnessing the impossible jam both in and out of sentosa thanx to zoukout.

Nice DnD anyways.

Rewind some more!

Day 4: Reunion Day.

Called up Nickie the day before to arrange to meet on this day.

Anyways, the last time I saw Nickie was in 03, when she came over to sg for a holiday and bunked over at my place (hougang back then). No, please don't get the wrong idea. Nothing ever sparked off, never did, never will. Just buds.

That's a pic taken before she left, happened to be her bday the day before. The one on da left is another JC classmate, QM, who's close to her too but I never really was close to.

And so, set off and met at Tsim Sha Tsui at noon, and went to "Yum Cha", a frequent hobby of locals. Nice dim sum, and wasn't exp at all, like 15 bucks for about 6 different dim sums (ok i'm sorry for mis-pluralising the word).

After lunch we were thinking wad to do - she had time, so did I, so she decided to bring me for a ferry across the straits, and visit Causeway Bay, a popular shopping district.

Xmas deco at Harbour City which was beside the ferry terminal.

Mr Snowman... ain't it a little early for u to be around??

Nevertheless, the Xmas spirit was in the air.

The Aerospace Museum and Clock Tower, beside the ferry terminal.

The Convention Centre on board the Star Ferry to Wan Chai

Spotted a lotus near Wan Chai.

Lotsa luxury cars in HK. Just 5 days, and I saw 5 lambos, 3 ferraris, a lotus, 5 bentley continentals, and a couple of Merce Limos. Looks pretty nice on da streets, esp when it's speeding. But....oh well...boys' toys.

And a 20-min walk to Causeway Bay

Da Xiao Ren

Yes, the ahma does that for a living. Quite a few of these around. Nickie said that in the past it was cursing while hitting them, now the trend has changed; These days they say niceties and well-wishes while hitting... seriously. The rationale? Well if you make these "Xiao Ren" better, they will get off ur back. Lol. How culture evolves.

Times Square, kinda like the Ximending of HK.

Large doggies on the street.
The husky looked pretty handsome.

Reputed to be one of the busiest road junctions in the world, a major junction in Causeway Bay.

Humongous Nice Xmas Deco hanging down at WTC HK.
Watch the people below for scale.

And our destination - dessert!

Banana Crepe

Similar to Honeydew Sago w/ ice shavings.

That's us in the dessert shop. The shopkeeper tried to be artistic. Right.

Nice pups. Accompanied her to get food for her family of 3 Chincillas. She applied from SPCA to adopt them, at a cost of less than 100sgd each. She saw they were a family, so didn't wanna break them up, so she took all 3 of dem.

Too bad didn't have the chance to see them, maybe next time im in HK.

And it was off to pick up Clarisse.

Colonial-styled Government Administration Building, just on a hill beside Clarisse's office tower.

Destination of the night was pretty far off... The final MTR station on Lantau island, just 5 min away from the airport - and 1 hour journey from Central.

Why are we there? Two words. Factory Outlets.

There's a mall there which is a conglomerate of many many brands' factory outlets, including familiar ones like Nike and Adidas, atas ones like Guess and Polo and Esprit, etc.

But first, dinner after the long trip.

Where we ate.

The dreaded roast duck - which gave me a stomachache. Ridiculously oily. I ate it cos I didn't wanna waste food - Clarisse ordered without asking me. And of course I ate most of it. Some ppl think it's a delicacy... but this much oil...really doesn't sit well with me...NOT AT ALL...sighz... at least the fish and veg was pretty decent.

Well, since it's a factory outlet, you would xpect us to buy sthg right? We didn't. Cos we didn't find anything really suitable. Clarisse was hunting for winter clothing for NY, but the stuff we saw were either not thick enough or too expensive.

Well Sheen would remember this day as the day I called her thrice to ask her about the boots she wanted... a pity they didn't have sheen's size cos it's a factory outlet, limited size range.

So...went back empty-handed.

And took a pic of Wing On Department Store on the way back from the upper deck of a tram! Can fly one! lol.

3 stops before our hotel, we alighted - at Western Market. As another famous guidebook-recommended dessert shop is there.

Honeymoon Dessert

My pick.

I don't know how to translate it. I'll try. It's a Yam Sago Custard Brulee. I know, that's a wierd mix of stuff, but u have to try it to believe it - it's heavenly. But again, unfair judgment as I lurve anything Yam.

The top is a thin coat of Caramel, and it's slightly burnt as the whole thing was baked in an oven. Beneath is half filled with a layer of custard with sago mixed within, followed by a bottom layer of Yam Paste. Mmmm-hmmmm...

Clarisse's pick: Almond Soup with Egg Whites. The name says all. Egg whites are mixed within, tastes really good too - but not as completely unique as my pick.

Nice ambience too.

This is one of the empty tables.

The Chinese verses carved into the tables, covered by a thick layer of glass. Nice authentic Cina-ish feel to it, though the seats are very western. Nice overall mix, great ambience.

After dessert was playing at Western Market, kinda a preserved building as it was built in colonial times. Used to be a real wet market.

Having fun with Mr. Giant Nutcracker.

And Superman's changing room.

We caught a glimpse of the third floor of Western Market - never had a chance to go as we were outta time. It's a retro chinese restaurant called Shanghai Tang, with an authentic Broadway-ish feel to it. We could hear the music from the first floor.

Western Market as we were leaving.

A nice walk back to our hotel, a short 10 min walk past 2 tram stations. And we saw this:

Pretty amazing. The owner pastes a red banner, with black words, colours which imply desperation. What's written: Stocks failed, business deadpanned, why not take a gambit and slash prices? Lol. Ok, I know, he might be honestly serious, but it's funny that they put it out so blatantly.

And close off the night with a nice pic of us back in da hotel room.

Next up: Day 5