Happy birthday to me!

This is my third consecutive birthday that I am celebrating in Oman.

Two years ago to date, I spent an exorbitant amount of money to buy imported pork and cook and eat dishes of this all day long (more like all week long, to be honest).

As for last year’s birthday, Peter and I had dinner at Chilli’s in Muscat City Centre and went on to Markaz Al Bahja to catch the midnight screening of Inglorious Basterds.

This year, we did lots more of things together because we both had a day off work, thankfully, on the day before my birthday!

Taken during the eve of my birthday, 23 September 2010, on our way to Markaz Al Bahja for a late afternoon snack.

Again, we went to Markaz Al Bahja in Seeb to browse through the shops, spending quite some time in Muscat Sports having a look through their winter collection. Nothing of note, especially for ladies, since I was actually looking for some leggings and tops that could double up as casual and gym wear.

We then had a late afternoon snack, with sumptuous, affordable Chinese food from the Chinese Palace booth at the food court. I love, love, love Chinese Palace – it is my favorite restaurant in Oman, in fact. Not only are the prices wallet-friendly, the selection and dishes are fabulous as well. The Chinese people running the place are also very friendly and accommodating.

Corn soup from Chinese Palace, with carrot and chicken bits. Really smooth and hearty.

Chicken and vegetable combo from Chinese Palace, which has deep-fried chicken fillet strips, veggie balls in savory-hot sauce and oodles and oodles of stir-fried noodles!

After eating, we went downstairs to check out the movies running at Al Bahja Cinema. Sadly, all the tickets for Tekken and The Expendables were sold out for that evening. We decided to catch a show at City Cinema in Shatti Al Qurum on the following day.

We decided to make the trip across town to Rock Bottom Cafe, Ramee Guestline Hotel, Qurum. It was long drive, with the streets full of Thursday night weekend-revelry traffic.

At Rock Bottom, we didn’t pay any entrance fees, reward for arriving before midnight. The host led us to spacious booth at the dining area, which had huge LCD screens displaying UFC fights. We both ordered the steak-and-wine combo, just in time to have our dinner with the band’s first set.

After eating, we danced the night away until the end of the band’s third and final set, which was around 2:30 AM. We had a really great time, needless to say.

I was so delighted to finally get my hands on a discounted copy of Asia’s answer to Charlie’s Angels: So Close (2002), also known as Chik yeung tin si.

I spent just a little over two dollars for my very own original video CD of this movie.

The film stars three of the hottest female leads in Hong Kong cinema: Qi Shu (Jason Statham‘s leading lady in 2002′s The Transporter), Wei Zhao (Stephen Chow‘s leading lady in Shaolin Soccer) and Karen Mok (Tracy Lee in the 1996 Black Mask production).

So Close begins when a crooked businessman brings in a pair of high-tech assassin sisters, Ai Lin (Qi Shu) and Ai Kwan (Wei Zhao), to murder his older brother so he can take over the family’s business empire.

When a determined policewoman, Inspector Yat Hong (Karen Mok), starts to put the pieces of the puzzle together, the businessman realizes that he must destroy all evidence – including the assassins and the cop.

The three women are left to fight for their lives, while helping each other, albeit reluctantly at first, along the way.

Happy, happy, happy birthday, Mommy!

My paternal grandmother turns 78 years old today. Before I went on my scheduled trip, I called and greeted my grandmother.

I was back in town in time for the last two evening screenings of Jet Li‘s martial arts swan song Fearless, also known as Huo Yuan Jia.

This film tells the story of Chinese martial arts master Huo Yuan Jia (1869-1910). Yuan Jia was the founder and spiritual guru of the Jin Wu Sports Federation, which exists until today.

The story begins with a young Yuan Jia, who was born with asthma, aspiring to become a powerful martial arts master just like his father (portrayed by the magnificent Collin Chou), who owns and runs the Huo Wushu school.

Yuan Jia eventually got his wish as he grew up. He defeats the Master of the Zhao Wushu school, their family’s primary rival in their hometown of Tianjin, as well as the powerful Master Chin, said to be the best fighter in Tianjin. He becomes the undisputed martial arts champion of their town.

Vengeance from Master Chin’s family, however, leads to a tragic fate for Yuan Jia’s own family. The champion became an aimless wanderer and ends up close to death in a distant rural town where he is cared for a blind girl named Moon. He stayed in this serene farming community for several years.

Upon his return to Tianjin, Yuan Jia discovers that so much has changed since he left, and that China has been dubbed as “The Sick Man of the East.”

This gave him the impetus to accept the challenge issued by undefeated American strong-man Hercules O’Brien (Nathan Jones) to all Chinese fighters. With his more serene outlook in life and an infinitely clearer understanding of the principles of Wushu, Yuan Jia defeats Hercules, restores the badly bruised honor of China, and gains worldwide acclaim in the process.

In the days that followed, Yuan Jia’s loyal friend Nong Jin Sun decides to close his restaurant business in Tianjin and use his money instead to build the Jin Wu Sports Federation. Yuan Jia is named the organization’s leader and guru.

Yuan Jia’s celebrated victory gains the attention of a group of businessmen from various parts of Asia and Europe. They challenged Yuan Jia to fight four of the best warriors from their own countries. Yuan Jia accepts this challenge. He also asks Jin Sun to take over the Sports Federation after the fight.

This fight pits Yuan Jia against the British boxing champion, the European fencing champion, a highly skilled German military officer and the undefeated Karate hero of Japan, Anno Tanaka (deliciously and delightfully brought to life by Shido Nakamura).

Unbeknownst to all the fighters, especially to Yuan Jia and Anno, this match will not only decide their own fate as warriors, but will also make a strong statement about the destiny of the countries they represent.

I enjoyed Fearless very much, mainly because of the beautiful, brutally raw fight sequences.

The martial arts choreography was far from stylized or embellished with camera tricks – what I saw were fighters willing to give and take actual punishment. Wire work was rather minimal, too.

What is also pleasing was that Jet Li had to fight against quite a number of opponents skilled in a wide variety of styles – from wrestling and boxing, to fencing and Karate, among many others. The action sequences really gave Jet many opportunities to showcase his excellent Wushu skills.

The film also reminded me of the 1973 Bruce Lee classic Enter the Dragon, wherein he incorporated his own philosophies on martial arts and life as a whole into the message of the movie. That is, at one point, Bruce’s character says: “My style, you can call the art of fighting without fighting.”

In much the same way, Jet Li sends a message that violence is not the answer to everything and that revenge only leads to more bloodshed.

In a nutshell, being fearless is not about rushing blindly into a fight, but having the courage to settle the conflict before someone gets hurt.

Today, I got to watch a screening Memoirs of a Geisha at one of the local mall theaters.

I had read positive and negative reviews of the movie and went to watch it, surprisingly, without any biases.

I have yet to read the book, so I was pretty much a tabula rasa, which I suppose was a good thing.

The film has great music and gorgeous cinematography that reminded me a lot of Zhang Yimou’s Hero (Ying Xiong).

The actors and actresses were very well chosen for their respective roles. My favorites are legendary Chinese actress Li Gong as the cruel, envious, love-to-hate-her geisha Hatsumomo and Japanese actor Koji Yakusho as the caustic, scarred yet very appealing Nobu.

The scene in the entire movie that really impressed me was Sayuri’s spotlight dance, wherein actress Ziyi Zhang was clad in a flowing white kimono with very, very high geta to match.

The blue light, snow effect, haunting music and Ziyi’s powerful choreography in that particular sequence were just mesmerizing. The picture I posted in this entry is from that particular scene.

Our local celebration of the Chinese New Year took place today. The festivities included a soft inauguration of our Chinese neighborhood as the city’s official Chinatown.

The Chinatown area, which consists of three city streets that form a triangle, was entirely closed off since 12 noon today.

The organizers of the celebration set up a stage at the intersection of two of the bigger streets, adorned with traditional Chinese decorations, dragons in various sizes for luck and a huge Fire Dog that looked positively Freudian with its tongue sticking out and a very sanctimonous look on its face.

There was a food festival as well as a souvenir sale that ran the entire length of the longest Chinatown street. Everyone enterprising in the area had set up their stall to cash in on the event, methinks.

People could barely move through the place because the tables and the kiosks have all been pushed so tightly against each other.

My friend Maro picked me up a little before 7 PM and we took public transport to the closest spot it could get to Chinatown.

Of course, we had color-coordinated and he had dressed in red, too. He confessed that this was only the second time in four years that he had worn that particular shirt of his. If not for me, he would NOT have had the guts to wear such a “loud” color. How sweet!

We walked a block to the restaurant where we had made dinner reservations, with the promise that we will be getting the famous and allegedly very delicious Peking Duck. We ordered the duck, plus Bird’s Nest Soup, Lumpia Shanghai Pancit Canton, Pao and Shanghai rice.

Although we went for the smallest order size the place had, we were very, very surprised to discover that the “small” servings were actually pretty humongous.

Dinner lasted for nearly two hours because we had a lot to talk about. Besides, we needed time to eat the delicious feast that we had ordered.

On the whole, it was fun and I was glad that we had made reservations and went to the place early. As soon as 8 PM rolled about, the restaurant was packed, with a queue forming outside for those who were waiting for tables to get freed up.

At 9 PM, we went out to the festival area and watched parts of the fireworks display. There was already a live band performing on the makeshift stage, although their music is the stuff of local pop radio stations.

They should have brought in Faye Wong or Leon Lai – or Vaness Wu at the very least.

The highlight of my evening was our walk right through Chinatown. It was very crowded but I knew a lot of people who were there, Chinatown residents and otherwise.

We intended to get a few souvenirs, but nothing of note was available so we just decided not to make the stalls more crowded than they already were.

Kung Hei Fat Choi!

Happy Lunar New Year and welcome to the Year of the Dog!

May this year be filled with blessings, fortitude, luck, prosperity and, above all, peace of mind and heart for everyone.

And may we, as always, continue to live in interesting times.

I also wish to share a picture of my beloved Japanese Spitz dog. She has been with me since April 2003.

This is your year, my dear. Give it to ‘em good.

Right now, I am too awestruck for words.

Just look at the really pretty blue poster below and commence dying with my most heartfelt blessing. Then I will die right along with you.

This is, of course, for the movie SPL: Sha po lang. It is a dark, gritty and violent crime action-drama.

And I am truly, madly, deeply in love with it.

The fact that the magnificent Donnie Yen is in the film is immaterial and irrelevant. Even more so that he is clad in black leather.

Two things of note for today:

1. Our Chinatown to be formally declared as such
After so many years of waiting, our local Chinese neighborhood, which is demarcated by three streets in the city proper, will soon be officially dubbed as Chinatown!

As in the name will appear as an actual address and will be a concrete location, not just a simple reference to a place dominated by Chinese residents and establishments.

I can’t wait to see the new documentation of the local tourism office. Methinks the Chinatown inauguration will take place around the Chinese New Year, 29 January 2006, or thereabouts.

2. Allergy recurrence
The last time I had a really ugly bout of skin allergy was in the early months of 2002. Four years later, history repeats itself, although this time around the rashes are not as welting-red or have “eyes” (think Hiei of Yuu Yuu Hakusho).

The first rashes appeared on both my forearms late this afternoon. I believe this is not due to something I have eaten or strange particulates or the polluted air, but an effect of “too much heat bottled up inside.” I say so because I feel HOT.

I have been taking Histacort double dose and am subsisting solely on crackers, ramen and the music of Bellefire and Kelly Clarkson. Heee.

Kung Hei Fat Choi!

Happy Chinese New Year, everyone! I hope the Year of the Horse will be fruitful for one and all.

Last year has been trying, to say the very least, but we do not really learn to value life if we do not go through tough times. Good and bad times, hope and despair, joy and pain. These contrasts make us appreciate what we have and what we can do more than if we just have an existence not marked by trials and questions. That is the beauty of life.

Here is a tribute to all those born during the years ruled by the Horse. A rather exciting year to be born under, considering that it is parallel to Gemini in the Western perspective.

Star analyses say that this year will be one for “independence, movement and energy.” The downside may be that we could not really sit still for long, but if we are on the continued search for greener pastures, then perhaps this wanderlust would be worth it in the long run.

Astrology aside, this is one of the best video game fan pages that I have ever seen.

The above website has more than 500 game cast profiles, each of these containing at least 10 pictures of the character, including hard-to-find animated gifs.

Of course, as you all probably know, this is my favorite out of all of them. He has such a nice smile, and he toasts things, too.