I have known about this for some time (with all the prior announcements in the papers) but I was still surprised to find out that Queensway underground station will be closed for 12 months (from yesterday). Queensway is one of the most popular stations on the Central Line as many tourists and students choose to live there. Nothing amuses me more than the resulting havoc created for Malaysian students still insisting on living in the 'hip' and expensive Bayswater area, now forced to walk to another Central Line station or take the Circle Line from Bayswater station.
Queensway (pic source: backtolondon)
I only visit Bayswater once every two months in order to indulge myself in duck rice as Magic Wok (Four Seasons is overrated) so it won't really affect me. Still from now on I have to disembark at Notting Hill or Lancaster Gate and walk the five minutes just to eat. Mind you the last time I was at Magic Wok the duck is becoming a little less meaty. Lazy buggers. The ducks I mean, not the chefs.Twelve months is a mighty long time to fit in a new lift, paint the place up, fit in some new tiles etc. but the station is old so maybe the modernisation should be welcomed. I really should be glad. Once when the lifts were down we had to walk up the stairs in order to reach the surface. Not as torturous as climbing up the steep St. Paul's Cathedral when I was doing research there, but it is still bad enough.
On the other hands, pity those poor souls working at Heathrow Terminal 4, closed for 20 months from January this year! Press release
Kingdom of Heaven (15) Caught this last night. I couldn't be arsed to watch this but I was literally dragged. I won't go into details on how I was persuaded to watch the film. Visually Kingdom of Heaven is very exciting. The photography is excellent. Some film pundits has even described the visuals as 'very realistic'. Well I do not know how they define realism but if they are meaning the costumes, weather, location, battle styles etc are all very 12th century, then maybe they ought to sought a new career in marketing their time machines. Before I continue, I should mention that I recently learnt that the depiction of the crusade, the subject of the film, is of typical 18th century romanticisation by European artists. The movie rated '15' by the BBFC is a knight's tale of a young blacksmith (Orlando Bloom) from medieval France who joins his father, a crusader fighting to win back the Holy Land. I am no theologist or historian so I won't comment about the historical accuracy (or lack of) of this film. I do have to sound a word of caution. This is a Hollywood film after all and Hollywood films are not meant to replace your history books. And it also happens to be a Ridley Scott movie! I mean just check out the historical inaccuracies he made in some of his films (Gladiator). Excuse me ladies as I am going to give Orlando Bloom a little bit of flack here. I don't doubt his acting skills here but I think he was totally miscasted as Balian. First his youthful look does make him a little wimpy looking. His sword skill (seeing that he was just a blacksmith) is also suspect. Agreeing with Nicholas Barber sentiment voiced in The Independent on Sunday; Bloom, with his flowing messy hair, does look like a British student backpacker touring East Asia. Casting someone like that bloke from Gladiator or even Brad Pitt (Troy) would be so much more plausible. Okay, I have to admit something. I didn't want to watch the film because the topic of Christians Vs Muslims does not interest me one bit especially one that happened hundreds of years ago. It is enough that we have to deal with Dubya's crusade against the whole wide world. That is until I arrived at the cinema, took a look at the poster and saw a woman there who looks darn familiar and cussed. Fuck me. That's Eva Green! Eva Green. Eva... Last time I saw her was in her debut feature film (Bernando Bertolucci's The Dreamers). Now she was amazing in the movie (with and without clothes). (By the way, Eva Green's opposite in The Dreamers, Michael Pitt will be playing Nirvana's Kurt Cobain in Last Days, released in the next few months.) Stuff this! I 'bought' my ticket... Okay she was badly miscasted for the film. Very wooden and didn't have much to do. Ghassan Massoud, the Syrian (?) actor assigned as the great Saladin was superb. What a great find by casting. Edward Norton, now that is one great actor. A man who can almost do nothing wrong in his Hollywood resume was superb in his role as King Baldwin IV. Jeremy Irons on the other hand, another great actor was outrageously silly in his role. Enough about acting. What about the battle scenes? The reason why many of us went to watch Troy, Gladiator or Braveheart (all historical inaccurate movies) was for the battles. I thought it was okay. The siege scene in particular received the similar Hollywood CGI treatment where thousands of pixelated mini warriors battle it out. It couldn't match the siege of Minas Tirith on The Lord of the Rings or even the skirt wearing soldiers in Troy though.
In the end as a film it was a disappointment. It did interest (slightly) me a little in the (then) crusade and I might hit the local council library to research on the subject if time permits me. On the other hand the (current) crusade is of more distressing need of peace negotiation. George W. Bush (what a fucking twat) does need a kick in his arse and be told that (religious or non) crusades kills people. 6/10
Just finished updating my Amazon wish list. Hehe...anybody want to get me something can do so now... ;)
Jon Choo's Amazon Wish List
I wonder how they are feeling on a day where many people are busy celebrating their own mother.Or those mothers of dead 'coalition of the willing' soldiers.A Mother's Unbearable Pain
If there is one thing I hate of being a Malaysian living in Britain is I am supposed to celebrate 'Mother's Day' twice.
It is confusing damn it!
Malaysians typically follow the US commercialised version of Mother's Day which is on the second Sunday of May - tomorrow, whereas the Brits celebrate Mothering Sunday (which has also been commercialised), a day of Motherhood celebration which takes place on the fourth Sunday of Lent. In my opinion such celebrations are useless. By showering your mother with gifts and flowers, one is supposed to love his/her mother? All bollocks. If one love their mother so much, one would celebrate his or her mother every time they can and not just on a specific day.
Which is why I would continue loving my mum not only on 'Mother's Day' but anytime I feel like it. Obviously there are times when I felt anger with my mum - who doesn't? I might dislike her attitude sometimes (not now) but I still love her.
Same arguement about Valentine's Day where me and my girlfriend have a tacit agreement not to celebrate Valentine's Day because it's all false love. There are other ways to signify a love for someone and it does not have to involve material and certaintly does not have to be on Feb 14th.
Last night I was at Lahore, a Pakistani restaurant in Hendon. I was meeting up with some relatives who were in London on a holiday and also to catch the Chelsea premiership match with Charlton (piff...).This is my third or forth time at this amazing restaurant. They serve some of the best lamb based curries in London. The furnishing is a little weird. Hung on the walls are this glass rendition of Chinese/Japanese landscapes. The waiter later told us that the place used to be a Chinese restaurant but the art deco was so lovely that they decided to leave it in its place when they took over.Attempting to destroy my diet and quest to buff myself up by summer, my grand aunt ordered two portions of grilled lamb, two portions of lamb kebab, a plate of bryani rice, a lamb rice dish, a bowl of tandoori lamb, a bowl of curry aubergine, a bowl of dahl and two portions of naan bread. That is on top the complimentary 'unlimited' bowls of salad and pappadam. Now you can imagine five people trying to finish this!I wish I could take some pictures but it was rather rude in the presence of old relatives (and I left my camera in the car). Rather embarrassingly my uncle thought otherwise and was soon snapping away with his Canon Ixus 500, not at the food mind you, but at us.The grilled lamb which is my grand aunt's favourite is excellent. They call it lamb chop, but it looks nothing like the crap we are served in Malaysia. Very spicy and tender. I would recommend anyone to order at least a portion.The kebab is even better. One of the best kebab I ever had (they also run a fast food take away next door for those who just want the kebab). Very tender if not a little too dry. Nothing special about the rice dishes. The bowl of tandoori lamb cutlets is excellent. The curry sauce is tasty but not too spicy. Probably to cater to western tongues. Not that it matters.Hardly surprising we did not manage to finish the meal. Because my grand aunt is flying to Malaysia today for a two week holiday, I was assigned to be the bearer of the doggie bag. More Indian for me tonight then.The meal was a snip at £67. Looks expensive at first but for the amount we ordered plus our waiter was courteous enough to provide two portions of mango ice cream deserts (on the house of course), I think it was quite reasonable.Food: 8/10Atmosphere: 7/10Service: 7/10Value: 7/10Note: I will try to dig out the proper address and update this blog later on. There are so many South Asian restaurant sharing the same Lahore name it is impossible to know which one I am talking about.
Thanks to Katie I have now been listening to a lot more rock music. I have also been digging out my old collection of rock and metal CDs and converting them into digital files. I had a 'phase' with club music - which I still enjoy mainly ambient and euphoria - but am finally renewing my decade old interest in guitar music.Punk - check.Alternative - check.Speed - check.Thrash - check.Industrial - check.Grunge - check.Death - check.Grindcore - check.Indie - check.Albums on my playlist:Aikawa Nanase - 'The Singles Collection'Alanis Morissette - Under Rug SweptAnathema - A Natural DisasterAnthrax - We've Come For You AllArch Enemy - StigmataBloc Party - Silent AlarmBritish Sea Power - Open SeasonCarcass - HeartworkCarcass - Necroticism: Descanting the InsalubriousDavid Gray - A New Day at MidnightDuran Duran - AstronautFaith No More - Angel DustFatboy Slim - Halfway Between the Gutter and the StarsFeeder - Pushing The SensesGarbage - Bleed Like MeThe Gathering - How to Measure a Planet?Green Day - American IdiotImpaled - The Dead Shall Dead RemainJoe Satriani - Crystal PlanetThe Libertines - LibertinesMarilyn Manson - Remix & RepentMoby - 18Napalm Death - ScumNine Inch Nails - The Downward SpiralNine Inch Nails - With TeethNirvana - NevermindPearl Jam - YieldSonic Youth - Daydream NationSupergrass - In It For the MoneyVelvet Underground - The Velvet UndergroundThe Verve - Urban HymnsOf all the albums I listen to, I most enjoy the Necroticism by Carcass, the legendary British grindcore band. Brings me back loads of memory when I use to frequent those Metal boards on Yahoo! Clubs educating Limp Bizkit worshippers.
note: Sorry pinging PPS twice.
