127 Hours

Went to watch 127 Hours with la Gioia yesterday. To be honest, initially I wasn't interested eventhough James Franco is such a luring factor. I was thinking if it's gonna be like Cast Away, where following that 1 person got really boring. I mean it's okay to watch it one time, but Cast Away is not really a movie I can watch over and over again. In the end, the James Franco factor kinda won so I contacted la Gioia who had expressed interest about it. I have to say James Franco was really really good. He was so goofy but when he came down to it, I thought he was able to convey the inspirational story that was behind this movie. Cinematography wise, I thought it was really really good. I love the scenes and the canyons are so beautiful. It made me feel like I want to include visiting places like that in my life list.

Anyway, the movie being based on a true story really made me think how I would react on the same situation. I really don't know how I can survive. It also got me thinking of how hard it is to die. I think at a certain point he was expecting to die and yet with every morning he woke up and was alive. I guess he realized there's a reason why he's still alive or since he basically had nothing to do, he might as well try to cut his hand and try to get out. It's tough tough tough! and I really admire Aron Ralston for being able to get through it. It is really amazing. The movie felt pretty real in describing the shittyness of the situation, the fear and sadness of being alone and stuck, and obviously the amputation. I actually covered my eyes in many of the scenes because I really couldn't watch it. I thought it's a really well made film and I like it more than Black Swan but I still love The King's Speech more.

There's a line in the movie that really captured my attention.
You know, I've been thinking. Everything is ... just comes together. It's me. I chose this. I chose all this. This rock ... this rock has been waiting for me my entire life. Its entire life, ever since it was a bit of meteorite a million, billion years ago. In space. It's been waiting, to come here. Right, right here. I've been moving towards it my entire life. The minute I was born, every breath that I've taken, every action has been leading me to this crack on the out surface.
I thought it was really poignant and at the same time poetic and I kinda feel that it's so true and I hope hope HOPE, there's something like that rock for me in my life. Something that will come into my life and make me realize that I was destined to meet it. I do hope it's not like being stuck somewhere and I hope it's something nice but I do hope I get to meet that something that make me realize how it's meant for me and for my life. I don't really know if I am making any sense. Oh well ...

:) eKa @ 9:52:00 PM • 0 comments

Black Swan

Went to watch Black Swan today. I didn't like it much. I think it's because I just don't like the pyschotic theme around it. I don't like the dark element around it and the dark elements literally on the cinematography. Natalie Portman did do really well as a frail paranoid dancer but I don't think she blew me away with her performance. I guess I'm really not excited about this film at all. As I was watching the movie, especially towards the end when Natalie Portman's character got more paranoid, I was thinking if I'm gonna get a nightmare tonight because of the kinda scary (for me) scenes that I really should watch some lighthearted things before I go to sleep tonight. Anyway, if I want to compare it with The King's Speech, I guess I like The King's Speech so much more. I was looking at the list of movies which are nominated for Oscar this year. Obviously I haven't watched all of them, but I'm thinking if I should give my vote to Inception since I was totally blown away when I watched it and I like it a lot. For now, I'm kinda very interested with True Grit. Let's see if we can schedule that and 127 Hours in.

On life. I was thinking that I wanted to say there's nothing interesting happening in my life but the truth is there are a few things that I could share and in fact I would really want to share. Unfortunately I cannot write them here and as much as I want to share them, I kinda don't have people whom I can talk to about, well at least people who would just give their time and attention and to hear me completely. I guess it's pretty interesting whom I put my trust into. Like there are people whom other people would never have suspected who knows a great deal about things that I keep quiet. It's rather weird how I choose the people whom I tell my deep thoughts to. Even I get surprised at the randomness of it, especially when I realize one of the people who know quite a whole lot is a boy who's 7 years younger than me. How I became so trusting of this boy, I don't know. I guess when you can talk really well with someone, the conversation just flows. It's too bad this jabber boy is not gonna be around this week. Something happened yesterday and on that instant I was thinking that I wanted to tell him about it. As a substitute I told NanSee about it when she called me last evening. However I don't think she really got it because I couldn't give her a reenactment. Anyway yesterday in the class, I said something along the line that my heart is okay. It happened when we wanted to know how to say, my heart is broken. U thought I was heartbroken and so I said, no my heart is in an okay mode. It is really true and I want to keep it that way. I want a calm and peaceful heart. So whatever butterflies which are trying to flutter, they gotta be crushed. I'm borrowing that line from Blair Waldorf of Gossip Girl. Yes, I have to embarrassingly admit I watch Gossip Girl :( Hmmm, since I cannot elaborate much, I guess I stop now. Have a good week ahead, peeps!

:) eKa @ 7:46:00 PM • 0 comments

The King's Speech

Went to watch The King's Speech with la Gioia yesterday and I enjoyed it very much. I think it was really good, fitting of its nomination for Best Picture in this year's Oscar. A lot have been said about Colin Firth in this movie and yes he was very good. However I was actually more drawn to Geoffrey Rush. He was a delight to watch and knowing that he was the one who played Captain Barbossa in the Pirates of the Caribbean just made it more amusing for me to watch him. It was also interesting to watch Helena Bonham Carter. She's just so different than the normally manic her in the Potter movies and in Alice in Wonderland. Seeing her being so nice and supportive is such a nice change, she made her character so loveable. By the way, it has been said that most of British actors and actresses (almost everyone) acted in the Potter movies and yes it's perhaps true. I recognized the actor who played Dumbledore and there's the actor who played Peter Pettigrew.

Watching the movie kinda made me wish I am a royalty and people will have to call me "her majesty" or something like that :P I'm glad that la Gioia asked me to watch this movie and since it's so good, I really wonder if I should check out the rest of the movies which are getting Oscar buzz. I am planning to watch Black Swan soon. Anyway I'm totally recommending you to watch The King's Speech. If you think it might be boring, it's not boring at all. It's touching, kinda inspiring, witty, and really heart warming to watch. Hmm ... I should comment on the part where King Edward VIII abdicated for love. I don't know if I can do that if I'm in that situation. How do you know that love is worth a whole kingdom? I'm not sure if walking away from your responsibility for the sake of following your heart is the right thing to do. I guess I'm so uptight and really sceptical in love :P

Okay, I will stop now. I wanted to watch Glee but all the sites are too slow. I should sleep early I guess. I've been wanting to sleep early and yet I couldn't managed to do it in these past few days. Good night peeps!

:) eKa @ 10:23:00 PM • 0 comments

Back & Sick

Hello guys, how are you doing? I hope you are doing better than me. I'm down with flu. It's really bad. I've been having it for 1 week plus. Yesterday I finally surrendered and went to the doctor and man was that expensive. My usual doctor is not back yet from visiting her son in England that I have to go to a different clinic and it cost me double than usual. I do feel much better but I am not totally well that it's pretty annoying. I really really hope I will be great by Monday. There's so many things that I have to deal with and I need my brain to be working. If it can work better than usual it would be even better.

So I arrived here on Tuesday night. The plane was 1 hour late and so I arrived later than I wanted to. I had my flu and there's something with that and the air pressure that there was a point where my ears hurt a whole damn lot. I remembered it had happened to me before but I was still pretty worried. I couldn't hear really well after that, it felt like there's water in my ears. Luckily by the time I woke up the next day, they felt much better. I was so heavily medicated that I kinda lost my taste sense and basically I was just plain miserable. I felt so bad for having to stay at home yesterday but I thought I needed to. I was thinking the long weekend would be good for me to get a good proper rest. However I did go to class today. We are starting at 08:30 for our remaining classes to make up for the class we missed when Mr. M went for a holiday. It's not ideal for me because I already normally come late when it's at 9. So it's hard for me to be half an hour earlier and you can be sure that I am not making it on time. Well at least Mr. M is entertaining. I was thinking that one of this day I would on reflex punch him because he's so mischievous.

Let's talk about home. Well it was so great to be sleeping on my bed. I really really really love my bed at home. I hope I can have it here in Singapore :( I had a haircut. I met with the girls, Marlisa, Emilia, and Dewi and confessed something to them. I confessed the same thing to my mother though I downplayed it a lot. It's so weird that I am telling all these people. If it really goes my way, I think it would be nothing short of a miracle. But as I wrote that I don't even know what my way is, what I want is. Maybe when it comes down to it, I just can't commit. Moving on. So Chinese New Year rituals and traditions were the same. Saw the aunts, uncles, cousins. Heard stories. Saw changes. I seriously only get to see most of them once a year and for the adults, you don't see much changes in them but for the little ones like my cousin's kids, it's a whole lot different. I love seeing Little Alden because as my aunt said it, he seemed to be very open to be around me. The last time I saw him he was just learning to walk but now he's walking and maybe next year he'll start singing like his sister, Mikaela. Man I still remember the time when Mikaela was so young that she peed in our living room without warning :P Anyway, baby Alden was so funny. He was like a turtle. When you put him lying face up, apparently he couldn't get up on his own. My cousin said one time he bumped his head or fell trying to get up that it seemed he's traumatized to do it again. So they are using this to punish him. As mean as it is for me to say it, it is really funny to see him get frustrated and starts crying :P

Me and the aunts and an uncle and a cousin took a trip outside Jakarta this time around. We went last weekend actually. We went to Puncak. My auntie has a really wicked driver. He kicks ass. Well under Singapore standards he may be seen as reckless. I even had my worries when we were going down a mountain on a foggy dark morning when it was only 4 am. Well roads in most mountains are always in a spiral, so there's always a lot of sharp turns. We had fog and it was dark because the sun is not up yet and it's Indonesia which means when I say it's dark it's really dark, it's not as properly lighted as Singapore. I do wonder if living in Singapore all this time is like living in a sterilized bubble. I am prone to sickness more easily in Indonesia because things are not so clean as here and I've become rather spineless because it's always so proper and by the rule here. Anyway so that driver under that condition, still managed to go at a really high speed and overtook some people. I was pretty worried at that time actually. I think he got us down a mountain in around half an hour so it's actually totally awesome! When we were going there, the sun was slowly rising so it wasn't so dark but the fog was pretty thick and yet we could arrive substantially earlier than my uncle who left earlier and whose house was nearer to Puncak. My aunt and uncle were so impressed with the driver that they wondered if we flew there :P

Anyway it's been a long time since I went to Puncak. It's cold there. We went to Taman Bunga Nusantara. It was actually pretty nice there. It's unexpected that Indonesia has such a place. It's not like totally amazing but it's not bad and I think for Indonesia to have such a place, it's pretty cool. Then we also went to see a waterfall in Cibodas. It was quite a walk to get there. The trail wasn't actually smooth so it was actually quite a fun walk. Well at least for me, I know some people had difficulty going through it because of the distance and perhaps the fact that walking on the path was like walking on cobblestones. Again the Singaporean influenced me was thinking of how actually the path was not so safe and there weren't actually staffs or people who you could call if something went wrong. There were little boys who worked to help tourists to go to the waterfall. Not actually a good business since you can't possibly go lost when you just need to follow the path but I did see a boy who piggybacked an Indian boy as the Indian father ran behind them. Obviously they were tourists. I couldn't help feeling it's ironic and amusing at the same time. 2 boys with different fates in life and as much as I pity the Indonesian boy, I thought it was cool of him for being able to do that :) By the way these boys are like 9 or 10 years old. Anyway the walk was fun for me because you just felt so good when you completed it both on your way in and out.

Another interesting visit on our trip was when we visited a factory outlet. I know many Indonesians are crazy about factory outlets but I had never visited a good one until this time that I felt pretty sad that it's after chinese new year hence I couldn't shop :( I so want to go there again. All the branded goods were like 4-5 times cheaper and I'm pretty sure that some of them could be even 10 times cheaper. I do question the originality of the goods but they seemed pretty authentic. My aunt who has a clothing store said that they are authentic because as you know your clothes though they are american or italian brands, they do come from places like Indonesia, China, and India. Even the recent gap jeans I bought was made in Bangladesh. So my aunt said some of these goods are rejected goods but that doesn't mean they are bad. The mistakes could be so minor that you wouldn't even notice it. She also said that sometime these goods are left over. Like the factory was told to make a dozen and yet they make 13 or 15. When I touched the fabric, they did feel pretty good. You have things from Armani, Gap, Guess, Esprit, Marc Jacobs, Prada and many others. I was pretty shocked when I saw something from Desigual there. I can go crazy inside there. Even for an Indonesian price, it's really not expensive. So who cares if a button is perhaps not so perfectly sewn in. I hope we can go there again but the thing is, it's pretty far :(

That's about it peeps. Here are some pictures from the trip. I took a lot of pictures of flowers that even my mom was bored with it :P The peacock picture is from Taman Bunga Nusantara. For more pictures you can go here. Stay healthy all!









:) eKa @ 8:16:00 PM • 0 comments

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