Memorable makans in 2012!

In the previous post, i blogged about the memorable food in London. Well, here are the rest of memorable meals and food for 2012!!!

1. Hong Kong! 

Everything is Hong Kong is delicious!!!!

2. Pantai Seafood restaurant

On the same road as Lala Chong, we are of teh view that the food here is better!

3. Dave's Pizza Pasta Vino

We have eaten here before but only the pasta. Last year was the first time we had their salads and their pork ribs. Excellent!

4. Food court in Sunway

Our fren took us here a while ago and when my wife started to work in Sunway, we started to frequent this place a lot. The dishes are all pretty delicious!

5. Swine's

Pork! Nuff said.

No wait - have to add one thing - the best desert ever!!!! French toast with peanut butter, maple syrup and bananas!!!!

6. The food at Nepal

I love it! Spicy food, authentic!

7. Las Vacas steakhouse.

The most expensive steak i ever had! Kobe beef steak!

8. Lemon Garden cafe

We went here for our honeymoon - the best buffet in town!!!!

9. Indian rice along Jalan SS13/1A (can't remember the name of the place)

The wife suddenly wanted to eat Indian food - i jumped at the chance as i know this may be the only time we'll eat Indian rice together! It is still the only time - and the food was pretty good!!!

10. Kim Gary restaurant

We started going here quite often and we always end up eating the same thing - i'll have the mushroom rice with pork chop while she'll have teh vegetable rice with pork chop. Satisfying!

11. La Fite

First time eating at such an expensive joint! Probably the last time as we cannot afford to eat at these kinda prices!!!

12. Paella at Barcelona

Eating in London (2012)

Food in London! We had some pretty good food during our trips there at the end of last year!

1. Lupita - Mexican fare in London 

2. British Tea in London

3. Chorizo Roll @ Borough Market, London

4. Japanese @ Misato, London

5. Italian food @ Zucca, London

6. Chinese food at Four Seasons, London

7. Chicken Selects @ McDonald's, London

 

8. English Breakfast @ Angel Cafe, London

 

9. Sandwiches from Pret a Manger (they are everywhere!!!!!)

10. Roast duck at Gold Mine

Unfortunately, we din take any photos when there. But the wife was of the view that the roast duck there was better than Four Seasons!!!

 

 

Movies of 2012

Out of the 8 movies in my post "Movies I'm looking forward to in 2012,", only 4 appear on this list. I have not watched Prometheus. GI Joe has been pushed to next year.

Here is the list of memorable movies - not necessarily the best movies!

1. The Avengers

Joss Whedon, Robert Downey Jr, Scarlett Johannson, The Incredible Hulk smashing things!!! Watched this after Bersih 2.0!!! Loved it. Nuff said.

2. The Hobbit

Seen this twice in the cinema edi. Not as good as The Lord of the Rings but still, very good!

3. Les Miserables

One of the most anticipated movie of the year! The male leads let me down. The female leads made up for it. Cried so much!!!

4. Hunger Games

Liked Battle Royale. Loved Hunger Games!

5. Skyfall

The best Daniel Craig Bond!!! Exciting, cool, great villain and lots of London! =)

6. Resident Evil: Retribution

Lived up to expectations!!! Lots of shoot-em-up, video game style, zombies, hot chicks, zombies... and did i say zombies??!!!

7. Chronicle

Surprise hit of the year, for me! Went in without knowing much. Was shocked when i found out it was gonna be a hand-held camera kinda show. But i survived it - and watched a really good movie. Good storyline, dealing with what happens when one gets power.

8. Expendables 2

This is pure fun - and it was great to see Arnie and Bruce teaming up with Stallone, taking pop-shots at each other's previous movies.

9. CZ12

Jackie doing what he does best, entertaining us and making us laugh! 

10. Madagascar 3 

Watched this on the plane as i did not want to see anything serious. Had a great time! Great laughs, many LOL moments. Good one!

11. The Vow

Watched this on the wife's b'day - was surprised it was better than i expected. Maybe cuz i expected it to be really bad!!! Rachel MacAdams vow-ed me away, pun intended!

12. Premium Rush

Watched this on the day after our anniversary - not great but something different. Adrenaline pumping all the way!

13. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Another movie which lived up to my expectations. Vampires and vampire slayers. "Real" vampires, not the kind that sparkles... Liked how they tied it up with history. Hey, it's a movie, k?

14. Battleship

Another pure fun and action movie! Think i like it better than Transformers!!!!

15. The Dark Knight Rises

 This was alright. Great performance by Anne Hathaway, tho!


16. The Amazing Spiderman

I blogged earlier this year that i think Andrew Garfield makes a much better Peter Parker! The movie was alright...

17. Underworld: Awakening

Great to see Kate back again, killing vampires!!!!

18. The Girl with Dragon Tattoo

Released in the UK and US at the end of 2011, we watched this last year. A pretty good show. It helps when the story is good and keeps us glued on to find out the outcome! Now to watch the original version!!!

Top 10 sporting event/news/memory of 2012

Sorry but my sports interest is mainly footie and tennis! It was an interesting year for F1 too, i must admit. Anyways, here are my sports news (and sports related news) that i will remember 2012 for! In chronological order:-

1. Manchester City wins the Premier League (13 May 2012) - watched the last game live telecast with the wife who is a City fan. Great celebration in the end - stuff that dreams are made of!!!



2. Brendan Rodgers (1 June 2012) - so King Kenny was sacked. To be honest, while i'm a big fan of Kenny Dalglish, IMHP he just did not have it to manage a team in the 21st century. Brendan (who?) Rodgers - it is an interesting choice. Somehow, something deep inside tells me that in the long run, this may be a good decision. I hope my gut feeling is right!

3. Spain winning the Euro 2012 (1 July 2012) - I watched all their games and i absolutely enjoyed them, despite accusations of them being boring. They are indeed the best!!!

4. Wimbledon 2012 (8 July 2012) - Roger winning it for the 7th time!!!! And reclaiming the no. 1 spot in the process. he went on to hold it for a record 300 weeks!!!

5. Olympics 2012 in London - opening ceremony (27 July 2012) - stayed up all nite with the wife to catch this. Liked it very much. Very British!!! Rowan Atkinson stole the show for us!




6. Olympic Badminton Finals (5 August 2012) - this was memorable as we were at the Law Ball and a group of us disappeared as we all ran down to watch the climax outside Chili's restaurant. We stood outside there (some barefooted) with a huge group of strangers and cheered for Malaysia! We lost but what a wonderful experience!

7. Lance Armstrong stripped of all his titles (24 August 2012) - What a big news for me!!!! This caused me to stop wearing the yellow wristband that i have been wearing for possibly more than 10 years! It's not a Livestrong band but since it is yellow in colour, it is always associated with Lance Armstrong.

8. Hillsborough - Justice for the fans (12 September 2012) - the report came out that none of the Liverpool fans were responsible in any way for the disaster. Big, big news!

9. Chelsea - so many incidents!!!! Sacking of AVB, then winning the Champions League finals annonymously (heard about it much later!!!!!), sacking of DiMatteo, Benitez being booed... and Torres seems to be on fire again! Good for him!

10. Messi (22 December 2012) - he ends of this list and this year with 91 goals!!!! Brilliant!!!!!

 

Is the Hobbit better than LOTR?

I am comparing The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey with The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. In my view, the latter was better for the following reasons (not exhaustive, nor in any specific order. Warning: Spoiler alert!!!):-

1. Character development

There were some pretty good and interesting characters introduced in AUJ - and some were developed pretty well. Bilbo for instance, from the reluctant member of the team to being an important if not essential member.

But my complaint is that there were just too many people involved in this journey. 14 of them!!! I can't even remember all their names! Very little is known of some of them - just general stuffs. That is the dwarf who eats a lot. That was the wise one. That was the guy with the tattoo on his head.

Whereas at the end of FOTR, we knew all the members of the Fellowship very well.

2. Excitement

There were many exciting scenes in AUJ. And they were all pretty good. In fact, i must say it looked better than FOTR. But somehow, the excitement was not the nailbiting edge of the seat excitement. For example, the fight in the Mines of Moria was just brilliant!!! It was scary, it was thrilling. The Balrog was truly something that inflicts fear in everyone.

3. Heroic death

Yes, all 14 in AUJ survived to the end of the movie - altho if one or two did not, it really would not have bothered me (see no. 1 above). One of the best and memorable scenes in FOTR was the death of Boromir. Such sacrifice! And his last words - "I would have followed you - my brother... my captian... my king..."!!!

Which brings me to the next point...

4. Memorable lines

Sure, there were some good lines in AUJ - like Gandalf's "...remember this: true courage is about not knowing when to take a life, but when to spare one." But there were few and far between. dun get me started on the wonderful lines found in FOTR!!!


5. Comic relief

I found there were more funny moments in FOTR - thanks to Merry and  Pippin, and the banter between Legolas and Gimli. Can't remember any really funny parts in AUJ. Many scenes in AUJ may raise a smile and i do remember laughing out once or twice - but that was it.

6. Novelty

I guess Peter Jackson is a victim of his own success. When FOTR came out, i have never seen anything like that before!!! Now for AUJ, there were many "seen that before" moments.

7. Arwen

Enuf said. =)

(Pics obtained from various sites online)