Secretariat

A wonderful, true story which you shouldn't missed! Love the spirit of the housewife and the horse. Never give up and success will be ours!

Summary
Housewife and mother Penny Chenery agrees to take over her ailing father's Virginia-based Meadow Stables, despite her lack of horse-racing knowledge.

Against all odds, Chenery -- with the help of veteran trainer Lucien Laurin -- manages to navigate the male-dominated business, ultimately fostering the first Triple Crown winner in twenty-five years.

About Secretariat, the horse

Secretariat (March 30, 1970 – October 4, 1989) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse, that in 1973 became the first U.S. Triple Crown champion in twenty-five years, setting new race records in two of the three events in the Series—the Kentucky Derby (1:59 2/5), and the Belmont Stakes (2:24)—records that still stand today.

Secretariat was sired by Bold Ruler out of Somethingroyal, by Princequillo. He was foaled at Meadow Farm in Caroline County, Virginia. Like the equally famous horse Man o' War, Secretariat was a large chestnut colt and was given the same nickname, "Big Red."

Owned by Penny Chenery (aka Penny Tweedy), he was trained by Lucien Laurin and mainly ridden by fellow Canadian jockey Ron Turcotte, along with apprentice jockey Paul Feliciano (first two races), and veteran Eddie Maple (last race). He raced in Penny Chenery's Meadow Stable's blue and white checkered colors and his groom was Eddie Sweat. Secretariat stood approximately 16.2 hands (66 inches, 168 cm) tall, and weighed 1,175 pounds (533 kg), with a 75 inch girth, in his racing prime. copied from Wikipedia

I didn't aspect to finish this movie as I thought it was a boring one. However, the horse racing part make it so exciting. Worth watching as I found that it is a good motivation movie for all. Especially for housewives. When we believe in something,  we should go for it and never give up though we might have lots of discouragement from our friends and family. 

Diamonds in the Desert

One day, if you were lost in a big desert. You were lacking of water and the sun was scotching your skin. Suddenly you saw a hill of big diamonds and gold bars, what would you do?

You knew that by taking the diamonds and gold bars, they will be very heavy and definitely slow down your pace in searching the way out from the desert. You might die in the desert anytime because your strength was so limited. However, you also knew that if you were able to sustain by bringing the diamonds and gold bars out from this desert, you were going to be a multi-millionaire, settled all your bills, have an early retirement and fulfil all your luxurious dreams.

What would you do? To take them or to leave them?

I think we will just regret no matter how. If we couldn't make it half way in the desert with our hands and pockets full of diamonds and gold bars, we would probably regret and treat them as rubbish.

Or if we eventually found the way out from the desert empty handed, we would probably blame ourselves from being silly for not bringing any diamonds and gold bars with us for the rest of our lives.

Life is full of uncertainty. We couldn't really predict what is coming though we might have some instinct. To trust your intinct for big decision or not is another thing. Again, I'm in such situation where I am troubled with the diamonds & gold bars in the desert.

I wish I can get out of this situation as soon as possible.

Banana Leaf Restaurant, Miri

Looked to the right...

Looked to the left.....

Coast clear. Hehe!

Menu. Time to order?!

Hi, pretty. Please give me a moment. I need some time to study the menu first.

I need this menu...

Wah! So many choices. All are food menu. Where is the beverage menu?

Haiyo! Daddy, why you took my menu away?

Give it back to me...

I said, give it back. Ahhh...come on! Daddy....

Good daddy! Please don't tease me nor disturb me now. I need to order a glass of milk to quench my thirst first.

Magenta, Kuching

Romantic  dinner at Magenta, Kuching (Found out that they had moved from Nanas Road to Old Court House)

Spacious dining area.

Unique lighting with wooden floor like previous design at their old place. When the plus size customer/waiter walks from one place to another, you can feel 'earthquake' all the time.

The mushroom soup was quite nice but the portion was too big. We already felt very full after drinking half of the soup with the salad and home-made garlic bread we ordered.

My lamb shank pasta.

My hubby's special order ~ Vegetarian pasta.

He managed to finish the pasta but complained that it was too oily.

I failed to finish mine though.

The restaurant have big plants here and there. Good for privacy and due to being blocked by this big plant, we have difficulties in getting the waiters throughout the whole session.

That was our bill and the tips on the nice pearl clam-shaped tipping plate. Overall, I felt quite disappointed this time. I still prefer the old place where they served better food + better services.

The Social Network

My hubby and I watched this movie the other night. I didn't know the story of 'Facebook' till I watched this. It is interesting and I love it very much. However, the actors/actresses talked really fast, especially "Mark Zuckerberg" who speaks like a machine gun. I need to focus and pay full attention to catch what he is talking. Wonder whether he talks so fast in real life too?!

It is sad that he had 'lost' his best friend. Is it true that we will have to lost something or someone in order to have great achievement in life??

Summary
On a fall night in 2003, Harvard undergrad and computer programming genius Mark Zuckerberg sits down at his computer and heatedly begins working on a new idea.

In a fury of blogging and programming, what begins in his dorm room soon becomes a global social network and a revolution in communication. A mere six years and 500 million friends later, Mark Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire in history...

... but for this entrepreneur, success leads to both personal and legal complications. Written by Columbia Pictures 

The Social Network is a 2010 drama film about the founding of the social networking website Facebook and the resulting lawsuits.

The film was directed by David Fincher and features an ensemble cast including Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Brenda Song, Armie Hammer, Max Minghella, Rashida Jones, Joseph Mazzello, and Rooney Mara.

Aaron Sorkin adapted his screenplay from Ben Mezrich's 2009 nonfiction book The Accidental Billionaires. Sorkin also makes a cameo appearance as a would-be advertiser. Neither founder Mark Zuckerberg nor any other member of the Facebook team were involved with the project, although Eduardo Saverin was a consultant for Mezrich's story. The film was released in the United States by Columbia Pictures on October 1, 2010 to critical acclaim.

The film won the award for Best Motion Picture – Drama at the 68th Golden Globe Awards on January 16, 2011.The film also won the awards for Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Original Score, making it the film with the most wins of the night.




The film has been nominated for 8 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Copied from Wikipedia

Worth watching especially if you are a Facebook user like me. ^^