Brunch @ Antoinette Mandarin Gallery

am a fan of nice breakfast joints and thereby a search on the internet got me to know of this highly recommended chain of brunch-cum-high tea joint. In a nutshell, the lousy service of the restaurant precedes its good reputation. The same late morning we just managed to get seated, a couple - a Chinese lady and a Caucasian man - made their exit due to frustrations arising from the bad attitudes of some of the restaurant staff. Do not think I will be visiting here again; at least not for this outlet.

Due Date... the review

baaaaaack... after such a long break. Have also caught quite a lotta movies during this period and i really have a looooot to catch up on my posts (assuming anyone actually reads it).

the overall tone for Due Date is quite fast-paced; please do not let the 'theme' mislead you. Coming from the same producers as Hangover I and II (actually i didn't really like those two as compared to this one), the show discusses and acts out the weirdest combinations of things that could happen during a seemingly "harmless" and mundane routine.

oh and Robert Downey Jr. is perfect for this role, being his usual, talkative-self, armed with a witty sense of humour and his fast rate of speech (kinda like a mumbling machine gun). His co-star Zach Galifianakis (is that even his real name???) which you might remember as a "regular" from the Hangover series, is more talkative and queerer than usual. Anyways, no super makeovers for the two stars as they represent the people whom you may meet daily (minus the provision of some seriously extreme dry wit and queer-ness).

Synopsis: the plot revolves around "Ironman" trying to get back to his wife who is near her delivery due date, and the series of slapsticks created by Mr. Queer deters him from ever doing so. The show does have its crazy moments, and i love it for those moments (read: breaking away from custody under the Mexican Customs, slapping of a irritating kid a.k.a. the things probably a suppressed person would love to do but won't).

RPR: as a result, i give this show a 9/10 rating.

My gear(s)!

am personally very happy with the pictures taken with this compact camera (hosting a micro four-thirds chip)! Had done quite a lot of reading before deliberating my buy close to one year ago, and after numerous trials, i'm very happy to say that the XZ-1 is certainly my favourite (in terms of picture quality). nevertheless, i realised that once too often the camera goes bonkers when i change to the 'view' mode after taking a pic (read: display interface disappears and only the view remains). Not sure if it's a bug or not, and it's certainly something that i do not want to live with when i'm outdoors happily snapping pictures away. the resume of this camera? Refer to the pics taken for my Bali and HK-cum-Macau trip! :-) (P.S.: Anything before that was taken with my other favourite compact-compact cam the Lumix FT-1, which boosts HD video-taking capability than unfortunately is not offered by the XZ-1.)

Relic of a missionary (30 episodes) (... what is wrong with the title?!)

nice poster!

have not had a HK TVB series "captivated" me for quite some time. Maybe 'cause recently most shows are set in present than ancient themes. Being quite a fan of Chinese history myself, i wouldn't say that i wasn't motivated to wiki a bit more on the historical settings this show was set in. overall i thought the show to be quite ok - different; as i mentioned, it's been a while since the last period drama. Plus, it's not a show which requires much brains to understand and have post-show greviances due to unjust replications of history (read: 宫心计 and the likes). a pity laughing gor is clearly showing signs of ageing in the show, and not really in a 'gracious' way. At times, he seems like he is unable to move his move while trying to act out his emotions *pity pity*. oh, by the way, this is not a review, but if you are keen to watch this show, please do! :-)

Hmmmmm...

can't seem to get the stupid blogspot webpage "in-sync" i.e. nothing happens when i press the 'Publish now' button. Yeesh. Shall leave the blog hanging like that, as per my HK and Macau post.