Persepolis

The French animation is graphic autobiography of Marjane Satrapi who retold her childhood in Iran through the revolution to her adolescent years.

The wide eye little nine year old Marjane is an outspoken, active and non-conformist at a young tender age. She witnesses the change of her hometown after the Shah is overturned as well as in increasing sacrilegious belief that a woman must be cover up in order not to tempt a man. (It just proves to show that man has no sense of self-control, isn't it? Just blame the woman, its such an easy excuse.)

One day, her parents decided to send her to Vienna to study as they worry that her rebellious nature might get her into trouble. Yet Marjane is lost in the newly found freedom and European culture. As she grows, you witness how she slowly rediscovers herself and finds her true identity, slowly moving out of the shadow of domination she has experienced from her hometown.

It is an amazing graphic animation. I'm quite surprised while at the same time touched by her childhood experiences. It is rather hard for me not to be judgemental of the religious belief of what the women has been put through in Iran. While providing me with greater understanding of what happened in Iran from the 70s to 90s, I learnt to sympathise with the Iranian women. I could only wish that more of them are like Marjane, learning to be themselves instead of being a shadowy existence to their man.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 fairy clouds. Its a must-watch movie. Extremely well done both in the storyboarding as well as the artistic animation. You can feel the real life hardship but with less intensity and harshness . Persepolis is a beautifully crafted by Marjane herself as she shared her story.

Marvelous Melaka!

All of us from the office travelled to Malacca for a short 2D1N vacation from 28-29 November 2008. We left Singapore early Friday morning to take bus 707 to our hospital's 14th anniversary dinner before returning home on Saturday evening. It was a fantastic and wonderful weekend.

We arrived at noon at Jonker Street for the famous famous famous, needless to say... CHENDOL! And Nonya assam laksa and Nonya Laksa at Jonker Dessert 88. The seamless heavenly matching of gula melaka sweetness with coconut milk and the companion of the pandan green jellies and red beans is simply... SEDAP!

Of course, being an extremely hungry bunch of people who has travelled far and beyond to Malacca, lunch did not end there. We headed for Lunch Part II, to the well-known and established Hoe Kee Chicken Ball Rice. The fishball sized rice ball is out-of-this-world. Its must-try dish for anyone who visit Malacca.

By the evening, we headed to the main highlight of the company-sponsored trip, Mahkota Medical Centre 14th anniversary dinner. I have to admit, our nurses are truly hot and talented. They have done such wonderful job in putting up dances and singing to entertain all colleagues and guests. Well done girls!

The next day is R&R for everyone. We started the day with the city tour to San Bao Shan at Bukit Cina, heritage tour, lunch and company sponsored shopping excursion. Sadly, our tour guide is really bad. We didn't even want to tip him at the end of the trip.

I feel that the best part of the city tour is the visit to Baba Nyonya Heritage Museum (also located near Jonker Street). The privately owned museum offers excellent and impressive cultural tour of the lives of the rich Peranakans. I love the Peranankan house architecture and culture. It has been such an eye opener! And its only 8 ringgit for the ticket to the museum. I would love to go there again.

Malacca trip isn't completed without a nice hot Peranankan meal. Thanks to the generousity of our boss, we had a sumptuous lunch at Aunty Lee. Yum yum... I'm still drooling thinking about the delicious fish and sambal chili and otah.

Overall it has been an extremely enjoyable trip with all my colleagues. Thanks for all the fun and booze and Pure Bar. I would love to make another leisure trip to Malacca to enjoy the culture and explore the little shops and pubs at Jonker Street again. And also thank you everyone for their sweet compliments. This if-you-don't-have-10-carat-diamond-to-show-your-sincerity-,-don't-come-near-me woman felt really flattered.

Avenue Q

Avenue Q is the latest adult puppet show to hit town (by that I meant Singapore). The puppety musical begins with the arrival of Princeton who has just graduated with a BA in English and makes his decision to move to Avenue Q in New York.

Princeton gets to know a couple of new friends who are staying near his apartment. There is THE Gary Coleman who is the superintendent of the apartment, Kate Monster a cute kindergarten teacher assistance, Trekkie an Internet porn addict, Rod a Republican investment banker (and closet gay), Brian an out-of-job comedy and his fiancee Christmas Eve. Together, Princeton and his new found friends set on a little life journey together as they discover about love, jobs, money and purpose of life.

Overall it is a rather entertaining musical. I would rather love it to be more provocative, oops! I meant more thought provoking. For one, there can be more adult contents without being overly crude. The amount of adult contents is rather meek by my standards. Perhaps it has been tamed to avoid public disapproval. Who knows.

I have enjoyed the musical this evening. The scene of Princeton and Kate has been the most memorable and funny. Yet in general, the musical isn't as daring as I expected it to be, especially when it is compared to say Rent which has definitely pushed the limit of taboo topic (of gay) beyond the big screen and Broadway. I expected the same from Avenue Q but I have assumed wrongly. Nevertheless, it is still a decent piece of musical.