Chinese New Year 2013

Here is the list of events which made the CNY memorable - and in some cases, special!

1. Reunion dinner

Of course this has to be the highlight every year! I blogged about it here.

2. Ipoh

 
We spend a couple of day at Ipoh - eating and relaxing! =) Just what a holiday should be!!!

3. Dinner with church mates

The food was alright but the company was good!!! We adjourned over to another fren's house after dinner for a more comfy chit-chat session and nice desert! It was good to catch up with Geoffrey and family too!

4. Annual UNO session!

The session was at my house! It was really so much fun! Abunch of grown ups playing UNO!!! It was good to spend time with Geof and Victor too!

5. AHF outing

Yes, more yee sarng!!! And we also visited Jit Boon and Lina - and Gracelynn, their new born!

6. Friends visiting

It was nice just having frens over to our new place. Not many came over as we did not invite many - house still work-in-progress. But some close frens came over and it was nice hosting them!

7. Hospitals

Sad-eh? But 2013 CNY will be remembered for the many hospital visits - but all with happy endings! =) Read about it here.

8. Valentine's Day

V-day was on the 5th day of CNY. It was also our first V-day at our new place. So yes, pretty memorable. We stayed at home and had a good celebration!

9. Combined ahf meeting

We had a combined meeting and had a huge yee sarng!!!

10. Yee sarng

Speaking of yee sarng, i think this year i had the most ever! It's not much compared to some - but for me, it was quite a lot. 6 times! I love it!!!! It's only once a year! =P

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!!!!!