the things i miss...

you know what i miss doing these days?... i miss reading the newspapers.. i read Utusan Malaysia, Berita Harian, The Star, and News Straits Times. I usually scan the headlines first and then read more on the news that caught my interests. i also read articles and special columns...i love the daily sudoku in The Star..and the comic strips as well.. i don't quite prefer Harian Metro although sometimes I read it, if I cannot acquire my usual papers. I don't like tabloids.

but now, I can't read them anymore. they simply do not exist here. well, at least The Star exists but not all news stands sell it. It's difficult to get one. I have tried reading the local dailies here but they are less engaging my attention. furthermore, i cannot acquire the papers here on a daily basis.

and so reading online newspapers is perhaps the best option i have, although it does not give the same feeling....
i don't have a BB or any other smartphone...and I do not fancy the idea of reading newsclips from the small screen of my phone.

tv...is also the thing that i don't have right now. ohh and i am patiently waiting for the time to buy one. yup, i have to be careful with my budget. i just have to be satisfied with what i have now. so, without a tv, i have missed a lot of my favourite shows and news....and without internet connection at home, sometimes i feel clueless...

however, at least i am grateful that i have other things to keep me occupied. like doing chores around the house and reading. but sometimes i have focus disorder and sometimes my mind gets distracted with other things, that i cannot concentrate reading unless i have a very engaging material....

which then lead this ranting to books. to say that there are no bookstores here is absolutely a lie, but i cannot find all genres here. only a few...and the range of titles are not quite extensive...

but i am grateful because i still have the opportunity to enjoy my life with what i have, compared to the people who are being denied the chance to enjoy their life with their interests and hobbies....

and so the rants end here... :)

one big happy family

...riang rasa hati melihat sekeluarga berlibur bersama-sama ... hari keluarga anjuran sendiri ... menunjukkan hubungan keluarga yang rapat ... dan keluarga yang harmoni ... keluarga yang sentiasa bersama asalnya dari ibu dan bapa yang berjaya mewujudkan nilai kasih sayang sesama mereka dan anak-anak ... ibu bapa yang sebegini berjaya mendidik anak-anak mereka untuk ...

mempunyai nilai 'KITA' lebih dari nilai 'AKU AKU, KAU KAU'

mempunyai kasih sayang yang kuat sesama ahli keluarga

berkomunikasi lebih efektif sesama ahli keluarga

pandai menzahirkan kasih sayang melalui kata-kata dan perbuatan

menanamkan sifat yakin diri dalam peribadi anak-anak

saling menyokong antara satu sama lain

anak-anak yang lahir dalam keluarga sebegini membesar dengan peribadi dan minda yang terbuka, ekspresif, komunikatif, yakin, berani dan penyayang...

......

yup, saya ingin membina keluarga sedemikian...

......

p/s: tiba-tiba teringat masa sekolah rendah dulu, terasa seperti pernah main permainan kad 'Happy Family'...entah macamana dah lupa...

of carts and coaches

While reading a book with the background of the story written from the 19th century Britain, I found several words referring to the main transportations of the dwellers at that time and I could not imagine how they look like. It is quite interesting to look up on those things, at least I can imagine the stories better in my mind when I read them.

And so the means of transportation in question are the brougham, hansom, trap, and dog cart. Well, perhaps we are more familiar with the coach as it is the most well-known and well-shown in any 19th century period movies, like the one below...

A coach - google image

A coach is probably the highest standard of transportation and able to transport more than 4 persons in it and drawn by 2 to 4 horses (or even more). The bigger or the fancier the coach, the richer and higher status the owner should be.

So, how about a brougham? A brougham is a 4-wheeled, boxlike, closed carriage for 2 to 4 persons and the driver's perch is just behind the horses.

A brougham - google image

While a hansom is a low-hung, 2-wheeled, covered vehicle drawn by one horse for 2 passengers, with the driver being mounted on an elevated seat behind the reins running over the roof, just like this,

A hansom driven by a handsome driver..haha - google image

Then, there's the trap. A trap is a light 2-wheeled open carriage for 2 persons.

A trap, definitely not for rainy days - google image

Finally, there's the dog cart. Of course, by its name, it can also mean a small cart drawn by dogs, but I cannot imagine that dogs can carry a lot people in a coach. Except that if it's a sledge and that only for 1 person. The dog cart here is actually a light, 2-wheeled, horse-drawn vehicle for ordinary driving, with 2 transverse seats back to back and originally having a box under the rear seat for carrying a dog. So, this dog cart is originally for carrying the dogs, not drawn by them.

A type of dog cart - google image

The definitions which I've written is taken from Dictionary.com and photos taken from searching through Google Images. Yep, although I've been on top of a horse just for a few seconds when I was 6 years old, uncomfortable it was as I sat without a saddle and also fear (mainly my mom) that the horse would be galloping around, I've never been riding on any of these. I think it will be an interesting and exciting experience. However, coming back to our local coast, I should be reminded that I also haven't been in this one too.....

credit to owhpic.blogspot.com

 A bullock cart!

Oh well.....just cruising with my mousedeer, Kancil is enough...i guess.

Sherlock Holmes The Complete Novels & Stories

When I was a young girl, I've read a few stories of the most famous fictional detective in the world, Sherlock Holmes. Just not so long ago, I watched the Sherlock Holmes movie directed by Guy Ritchie and starred by Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law as the detective and his doctor companion, and I thought, "Is this real?" Of course not, the movie is a mixture or a concoction of the bits and parts of the many stories Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had written about him. And so, it roused my interest to enjoy Holmes's eccentric manner and wonderful methods of investigation once again, and read up the other stories that I haven't read.

Title : Sherlock Holmes The Complete Novels and Stories (Volume 1) - the Bantam Classic Edition

Author : Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (with an Introduction by Loren D. Estleman)

Publisher : Bantam Dell (first published in 1986) 

Pages : 1,059

Price : Bought for RM29.90 at Popular Bookstore

google image

Bantam Books has reissued the stories in 2 volumes and so far I only managed to lay my hands on Volume 1. Hopefully I can start on Volume 2 very soon. In Volume 1, you'll be entertained with the collections arranged in chronological order of the publishment. There's the 2 first novels where the first one, A Study of Scarlet (1887) introduces Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson together as roomates in the famous 221B Baker Street. Then continued with The Sign of Four (1890) where Dr. Watson met his wife. The rest are short stories as compiled in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1891), The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1892) and The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1903). All this brilliant works of Holmes are portrayed as if it is chronicled by Dr. Watson about his roomate and from all of Holmes successes, we also get to read when Holmes is kind of beaten in his investigations by the equally sharp Irene Adler in A Scandal in Bohemia, his little blunder in The Yellow Face and his dangerous assignment involving Prof. Moriarty in The Final Problem.

A valuable collection indeed. And in my wishlist is Volume 2.

Haywire

google image

Haywire is a story of a diabolical scheme gone awry a.k.a. haywire. Mallory Kane is an ex-mariner who works as an agent in a private firm. The firm's boss, Kenneth, who's formerly Kane's boyfriend, assigned her and several other agents, on a covert hostage rescuing mission in Barcelona. Apart from a little slip caused by the capturer's attack, which is then skilfully terminated by Kane, the mission is a success. The hostage, Jiang, is then delivered to the firm's contact, Rodrigo.

The Barcelona mission is supposed to be Kane's last mission with the firm as she wants to resign, but her plan has to hold as Kenneth asks her to take on one important mission before she resigns. She is to pose as a wife to a British agent, Paul in Dublin, as the latter carries his mission with a guy named Studer. Perhaps Kane is having her own doubts as to who Paul really is and what is his actual mission, her own investigations leads her to a barn in Studer's house and found Jiang, the hostage she had rescued before, dead, and on the scene, there's a planted evidence to incriminate her for the deed. Since then, Kane knew that she's been double-crossed. And since then, her mission is becoming personal, as she tries to find out who is actually betraying her, what is the plan and what's the motive, using all her might and abilities.

This movie is an action-thriller in fast pace. It boasts of many famous names such as Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas, Ewan McGreggor and Magneto's Michael Fassbender, among others. Gina Carano as Mallory Kane is unknown to me. What I like about this movie is that there are two things less shown in this movie compared to other Hollywood movie of similar genre. One being the over-sensualisation and sexualization of the female character, and the illogical fighting choreography with gravity defying moves or unworldly special effects. To my untrained eyes, the fight scenes are rough but clean, and exciting. The dialogues kinda flat though, and not enough emotion on Kane's character. Probably because she is supposed to be a toughen up ex-mariner or commando.

At the end of the movie, we get to finally know who is the double crosser(s), how they plan it, but motives? Hmm, a little under-developed for a movie which only takes about 90 minutes. But I would like to think that since the higher people in the firm made a double-end deal, both with the government and also the criminal thugs, they need to destroy all related link involves in the process and that means the brightest, strongest and highly skilled agent they have which is Kane. The movie doesn't have enough weight for thinking matter, but enjoy the action!