House of many ways

Ever gotten lost in a house? You will be if you went to live in a wizard's house that has many ways. Charmain loves to read and hopes to enjoy her summer reading more and more books. She also wrote a letter to the King to offer her help to sort out his library. She was expecting to have a fun summer but her Aunt Sempronia signed her up for a small task which is to look after Great Uncle William's house while he is away. The reason for him being away was he is sick and the elves took him away to heal him up. Great Uncle William is the Royal Wizard Norland and what's special about his house is that it bends space and time. One door can lead to different rooms.

As Charmain got there she wasn't given any instructions and she arrived just to see Uncle William getting carried away by the elves. Luckily the wizard prepared for a stay and there is a voice who answers to her questions such as How to get food, where is the bedroom and such. Uncle William's voice will be there to answer her questions to help guide her around. Certainly when she got lost in the house she would just ask and get the directions. In the house lives a magical dog and which became attached to her and along came a young boy Peter who was suppose to be the apprentice of the Royal Wizard. 

It seems like a disaster where they had many troubles in the house. Charmain also manage to get an offer from the King to help sort out the library. At the same time, the princess of Norland seeks Sophie's help in searching for the missing gold of the royal family. Sorting the documents, letters and books in the library helps the King find a clue in the missing gold. Uncle William also left a bag for Charmain which contains directions and instructions on moving around in the House. 

Somehow or rather Charmain is involved in helping to find the missing gold along with Sophie and family's help. The truth about the gold and the relatives of the Royal family is also revealed. Howl has also transformed himself to hide his true self for the investigation.

House of many ways by Diana Wynne Jones sure has many ways just to get to the bedroom in a small little house. This sequel to Howl's moving castle isn't as exciting as Castle in the Air where there was many roadblocks for Abdullah. This book had more of what happened inside the house and a bit on Sophie's family involving in searching for the missing gold and resulted to an ending that you can quite expect it to be. Throughout the book you read up on Charmain and Peter on how they manage in the house. How they did things and how they discover routes in the house which connects them to certain places. I think this story is just fine in the adventure department because not everything that happens is exciting. But when it comes to the last few chapters it gets a bit more interesting. Definitely not her finest work but good enough for me to finish the book as I wanted to know how Howl and Sophie is involved. I really hoped the writer would have sequel on the couple itself as they both have interesting personalities and also magical abilities. My favourite is still Howl's moving castle.

Castle in the Air

Living at a place where mostly you see is sand, it's hard to avoid dreaming away in the daylight. Abdullah lived in a country where when you walk out of the city it's the desert in front of you. He is just a carpet merchant and considered as a failure from the eyes of his relatives. Abdullah himself is happy with his business which was was some money left from his late father for him. He manage to get a booth at the Bazaar which is quite nicely situated where it is not too far from the rich people's house. Once in a while he manage to buy carpets from young merchants and sells it as his booth earning a little bit of profit. Most of the day Abdullah can happily daydream away where he is a prince and he marries a princess. Sometimes his father's first wife's relatives would come and complain about how he is a failure but that didn't bother him a bit.

One day Abdullah bought a carpet that was claim to be magical. The owner demonstrated that it could fly and needed to sell because he needed money quickly. Abdullah was suspicious but still the carpet was quite good quality. Abdullah was not able to summon the carpet to even float, he was upset and fell asleep trying. His dreams became wonderful where he went to a beautiful garden. At that garden was a beautiful girl and she thought that Abdullah was a girl because of the sleeping robe he was wearing. Everything felt real to him the next morning he woke up and he realised that the carpet had moved him there while he was sleeping.

Determine to see the girl again Abdullah tried all he could to summon the carpet to fly. That night itself Abdullah went to that garden again and the girl said that her father would marry her to a prince but he aged quite old. He decided to show her all kinds of man around in the world and so he bought every picture of different kind of looking man available. The people in the Bazaar thought he has changed his business into art itself. Abdullah carried all the pictures onto the carpet and went to sleep and after he woke up he showed her all the pictures and she was shocked and accepted that he is indeed a man.

The girl told him that she had a prophecy when she was born and that she was to marry the first man she sees excluding her father. That is the reason why she was only let to be out at night. The girl decided that she would marry Abdullah since he was the first other man that she saw, and so they decided to elope the next night.  In preparation Abdullah sold all his carpets to get as much money as he could and he went to buy something nicer to wear. He also got a haircut. Before he left his relative came and told him that they will reveal his prophecy that was given when he was born.

Abdullah went with him and read the prophecy which was he will be raised above others in this land. And so his relatives know that a great future will come to him and tried to set him up to marry one of the relative's cousins. Those two ladies were fat and ugly and he had to politely reject for he was going for the princess. That night he flew there happily and just about he was going land, he saw with his very own eyes that the princess was kidnapped by a djinn. He was powerless and was captured by the Sultan's guards. The sultan demanded to know where his daughter was and after they found they will fulfill the prophecy and kill him afterwards.

Abdullah manage to run away with the carpet's help and many trial and tribulations came for Abdullah to save the princess. In his journey  he met with interesting characters and met with Sophie and family unexpectedly. Abdullah will find a castle in the air and save his princess for sure.

This book is the sequel to Howl's moving castle (the one that Studio Ghibli made into a major motion picture) written by Diana Wynne Jones. Though Sophie, Howl and their baby only have a few chapters of involvement but it was fun to read how their lives had changed since then. I really like how the author inserted Howl and Sophie as they were from different lands. I really enjoyed this book as there were many trials faced by Abdullah and it was overcame unexpectedly. Although the ending can be easily predicted but how it got there was just interesting and fun. I dare say it's the second best story after Howl's moving castle.

LeSportSac Spring & Summer 2010

As we enter the summer season many fashion industry will introduce their new designs to suite the season. When it comes to summer, it's a season of vibrant colours, thin materials in clothing to suit the hot weather, slippers and shoes that doesn't cover the whole feet.

I'm not a big fan of LeSportSac as the money you pay for those bags can be used to buy a nice leather bag too. But I do like the designs they offer, it's cute, colorful and you don't get those kinds of design patterns printed on leather, it just spoils the leather. Last month while I was browsing around in Kinokuniya I came across the catalog for the Spring & Summer designs. I couldn't browse because it was wrapped up and reason being that it has a free gift if you purchase it. The free gift was a pouch and a strap is given to change it into a small sling bag.

It had a wonderful design therefore I bought it plus there was a 20% discount on it when I purchase another item. It's a win-win for me as I have other books and that magazine with the free gift only cost RM 50++ after discount. After purchasing it, I went to Isetan as they were having a sale and went to look for that pouch. That pouch cost RM 210 and Isetan was giving 50% discount resulting it to RM 105 but still I got mine half of the price after discount. It was one of my best buy that I have ever made. Eventually my sister saw how nice and she bought the magazine too but with a different design pouch. This is the first time that I bought a LeSportSac and at a cheap price too.

It was my good luck day as I flip through the magazine the design pattern that I chose for my pouch is a design that can only be found in Japan. In Malaysia you won't be able to get the design I have unless you fly to Japan and bought it there. What a wonderful day it was.

My pouch design

My sister's pouch design

Pacman 30th anniversary

It's already been 30 years since Pacman came into the gaming world. A classic game that has been played by different ages. Even though it's a simple game but it's challenging as you eat up the dots and avoid your enemy. As you pass one level, the enemy moves faster and many years down the road there are many more new maps created.

I didn't know about the anniversary until I went to Google.com. There you will see a beautiful banner displayed, what's more surprising you'll find an insert coin button. Once you clicked it, the Pacman theme starts and you see the monster moving about. What Google did was to allow users to play the game after you have clicked the insert coin button. Once you have lost it will redirect you to links related to Pacman's anniversary just like clicking any innovative banners they have.

I'm grateful that Google is doing this much to honor Pacman. It takes effort to do this and Google is certainly showing its uniqueness and that it is not merely a company that wants money but a company that wants to make a change in the IT world.

My Trip to Singapore part 2

2/5/2010 (Sunday)

Today I woke up early again because I have an appointment to have lunch with my WoW (World of Warcraft) friends that I've known since 2003. It was a hot day and before meeting up with them in Vivocity, I went to Sim Lim Square aka The Low Yat Plaza of Malaysia. I search for the directions on google maps and drew it on a paper.

My sister and I walked out and took the MRT from Kovan to Little India. Upon reaching we just follwed the map, after 10 minutes of walk and 800 meters I realised we were lost. So  my sister asked a passerby and apparently we went the wrong direction from the station. There were actually two exits at the station and we took the south one which was wrong, and so we continue our walk in the hot hot sun. The 500ml water is already finished before we reach the building since the weather was so hot and dry. Sadly when we reach our destination many of the shops were not opened because of Labour day holiday, what luck I have. After asking around for the item I wanted which was out of stock but they still printed it on the price list, we left and went back to the station.

Upon exiting the building we took the wrong exit and walked around the building until we found the right path, this is definitely a bad day for me. From Little India we took the MRT to HarbourFront and exit to Vivocity, piece of cake since the station was linked to the complex. We were one hour early so we walked around and looked at clothes, shoes and stuffs. It was time for lunch and it was at a Brazilian restaurant called Carnivore. The food was served buffet style, the reason that it's called carnivore because they keep serving meat, grilled beef, lamb, pork, sausages and chicken. The meat was cooked really well, it was so juicy and you didn't need any sauce for the meat. It was an enjoyable lunch meal and it was fun catching up with my friends.

Around 4 something we had to leave because my parents were going back to KL first. My sister and I were staying until Tuesday. We did some shopping before we left, my shoes was hurting my feet from all the walking so I bought a pair of Crocs =P. We went to Novena Square to send my parents off, there we waited for the bus to arrive and then my parents said their goodbyes to my grandparents. After that we went to dinner at a place called Yum Cha. The food was good and tasty, we had Lotus soup, pork, taufoo, and fried Min Sin which was good. Dinner was over and we went back home and called it a night.

3/5/2010 (Monday)

We woke up around 10 something and my sister helped my cousin sister with her homework. After that off we go to Orchard Road, as usual we took the MRT and there were many people as it was a public holiday for the Singaporeans. After we exit the station we found ourselves inside a shopping complex (Ion Orchard) and we have no idea where we were. So we just walked around and we found many expensive brands in this place. We went out to Orchard Road to find that the building had a very unique design and figured this was a new complex as I don't remember it 10 years ago.

On the walking street itself there were many display items for people to take pictures, we wondered around taking pictures and headed for Takashimaya for lunch. The place was just like I remember and there were many Japanese food there for sale. We bought takoyaki, Korean pancake, yakitori and some drinks and looked for a seat at the food court area. The food was good and we left to find Forever 21 in a different shopping complex as we decided to come back here for tea on the dessert later.

The Forever 21 store that we were looking for has 4 floors as described by my sister and so we walked and walked and followed a direction where many ladies was holding the bag. Somehow we got lost again and we asked a young man but he seemed lost too. Then a lady overheard and pointed us to the right direction of 313@somerset. The moment we walked in, the atmosphere was different, it was another new shopping complex and was nicely built. Everything inside was new and we could see that the brands there were also more expensive. The Forever 21 store had 4 floors and was crowded with many ladies, even the dressing room had a long queue. My sister and I looked around and had a few pieces of clothing to try on. I think we spent about 30 minutes or more there and I bought a tunic type shirt.

We went back to have tea in Takashimaya and went to Kinokuniya. We spent some time exploring the book store but didn't buy anything as the books in KL were cheaper after the exchange rate was applied. We continued walking around and waited to meet with my sister's friend for dinner. Since we were so tired we decided to eat at Ion Mall food court because it was next to the MRT station. We tried the Singapore laksa there and it was delicious wished I could eat another bowl but maybe next time. There was also Japanese food for sale at the same floor the food court was located and we bought Hokkaido steam cakes to bring home and share with everyone. We went home and tried the cakes and it was delicious, I'm definitely trying other flavours the next time I came back. It was a fun day walking and shopping at Orchard Road, too bad it wasn't the sale season as things will be cheaper. And so the night was over and we packed a bit before we went to bed.

Ion Mall

4/5/2010 (Tuesday)

 We woke up feeling sad as it was the day to go home. My cousin sisters were in school and my uncle and aunty were at work. I spent some time chit chatting with my grandmother asking her whether she had gotten used to this new home. We talked about my aunts who were living in Belgium and Paris and that they were coming to visit my grandmother this summer.  My grandmother asked my sister and I to go out and buy McDonald's which was nearby. We had lunch together and I went upstairs to finish up my packing. While half way packing my grandmother suddenly went "EH??" and I went downstairs to check what's up. Apparently my cousin sisters convinced the bus driver to send them home first because they wanted to say their goodbyes to us, so adorable. We took some pictures before we left and took the MRT to Novena Square. We felt sad that we were leaving and my grandfather said the next time we visit, we should visit longer. This ends the journey of our visit and we reached KL at 9:30pm.

 For more pictures visit: Singapore Trip

My Trip to Singapore part 1

The last time I went to Singapore I was 15 years old, so now after ten years has passed I went there again. This time it was to visit my grandparents who have moved there. It was a four day, four nights stay and to me it wasn't enough. 

30/4/2010 (Friday)

6:30 p.m. was the time the bus was leaving and at 6pm my family and I have yet to get a taxi to where the bus departs. My parents drove out to the streets to find a taxi, luckily by 6:15 we got one. Once we were there we just rushed onto the bus and then my dad's phone rang, First Coach was asking my dad to register first. It was funny because this is the first time we took a bus to Singapore and we didn't know what needed to be done. Our 1st trip to Singapore as a family started with anticipation and excitement. The journey on the bus took more than 5 hours, my sister was watching the movies provided by the bus, my mom was recalling her time in Singapore when she was younger and I was sleeping as I couldn't watch any show from my seat.

We reached the Singapore customs after 11:30 and went into Singapore, it took about 30 minutes to reach the drop off point for the bus. My aunt and uncle also came at the same time to pick us up where the bus drops us, Novena Square. My grandmother was inside the car waiting for us, it's so good to see her, missed her so much. My grandmother insisted to look for food for us as we have been on the bus without dinner. We passed by a place selling chicken rice and so decided to pack it back to eat.

At home we all shared the food and it was good and tasty. The packaging was really clean and neat, the chili was in a sealed plastic bag. In Malaysia the rice and chicken are packed in polyester packs and in Singapore it's inside nice plastic box.  We were all tired and so we went to bed in the third floor.

1/5/2010 (Saturday)

Early in the morning I could hear my cousin brother crying, but I continued to sleep until 9 something my sister and I woke up. We got ready to go to the nearby market for breakfast, one thing good about Singapore's area structure, every housing area have a market, food court and a train station that is walking distance. It took less than 10 minutes and less than 1 km to reach the place, my aunt, cousin sisters, my mom, sister and I walked there, it was fun. We had beef ball noodles and my aunt showed us more of their new home and the area. There was a small shopping mall and the MRT was very near too. We walked home to rest as lunch time we were heading to Resort World Sentosa.

At 11:45am, my uncle drove all of us to Resort World Sentosa, my aunt's new work place. My aunt treated us lunch there at a VIP restaurant, the food was good and special. After that, we walked around the hotels and took some pictures, in our next trip we decide to visit Universal Studios, for there were many people as it was a public holiday in Singapore. It was a hot afternoon, we also went in the casino. The casino was so crowded, many gamblers at roulette table, blackjack table and poker table. Even the slot machines were full of people sitting there and gambling. My grandmother gave my sister 10sgd to try her virgin luck, she won back the 10sgd and then lost it to the classic slot machine. It was a confusing game as we don't understand how we got points. We went home tired and took a nap until dinner.

For dinner we went into the city to a restaurant that had the same reading sound as my grandmother's name. The food that was served was Hainan style, the pork chop was very good. After that my uncle drove us around town awhile and we passed by Little India, there were many people there and mostly are Indians, it's like looking at Brickfields, KL that is 5 times bigger and more crowded. My parents went to visit my grandaunt who lived nearby after that and all the children and my grandfather went to bed. 

Trip to the market

Resort World Sentosa

Queen of Babble - Gets Hitched

Queen of Babble Gets Hitched is the last book of the series for Lizzie Nichols. The previous story ended with Lizzie waking up at her apartment to find Chaz next to her but dressed and Luke at her door looking for her. Luke was suppose to be in France but he came back because he wanted to propose to Lizzie. Lizzie temporary avoided a conflict between the two friends by asking Luke to get her coffee and then she shoos Chaz out of the house. Chaz is pretty pissed as he feels there is something between them and does not agree to Lizzie getting back with Luke.

Luke proposes and Lizzie accepted it and she is on her way of becoming a bride.Lizzie is busy planning her dream wedding but many problem arises where the best man (Chaz) and maid of honor (Shari) does not support the marriage. Lizzie's wedding will be in south of France but her family wants in at their backyard. At the mean time, Luke's family is influencing him to quit studying medicine and going back into investment banking. While Lizzie is busy planning her wedding she also is busy with her career where she needs to design a wedding gown for a celebrity. The celebrity is a troublesome person, wanting this and that, behaving not what a bride-to-be is suppose to.

In all these problems, Lizzie starts having doubts about her wedding and whether Luke is the one for her. Chaz is simply mad at her and thinks that he is the one for her instead. Lizzie doesn't want to be a bad girl and be with Chaz and dump Luke.

What you'll find in this book is the development of Chaz and Lizzie's relationship, her career development and more family involvement. Meg Cabot inserted special parts just like the previous two books, which are "A History of Weddings" and "Tip to avoid a Wedding Day Disaster", not to forget quotes but this time not on gossip but on soul mates and union of two souls. I really enjoyed reading those small small things that is in the book, it really widens my knowledge on history on weddings. Drama and funny are the key essence of this series and this book still gives plenty of it. You would read keep reading to find out how the drama ends and will Lizzie end up with Luke or Chaz or neither? I'm really happy with the ending and I find that this series is much better than Heather Well's which I will blog about later.

Queen of Babble - In the Big City

Lizzie Nichols has graduated and is out to find a job but she isn't lucky as she couldn't find the perfect job. Her best friend's boyfriend (Chaz) helped her and so she is working as a receptionist at Chaz's father's law firm. There she start her gossiping again and has many job troubles. In the mean time, she is volunteering to work in a wedding gown shop. She really loves it and wants to be a certified wedding gown specialist.

Lizzie's love life seems to have a good start where Luke from the previous book has ask her to live with him and she agrees. Then she manages to bring up the M word at Luke and soon finds herself no place to stay. Other than that, Lizzie is meddling with a famous person's wedding and soon find herself needing to design and refine the wedding dress of this person. Many troubles occurs as Lizzie does not manage to shut her mouth up at important hours.

What I like about this second book is the humour is ongoing and I'm curious at how things will end for Lizzie be it her relationship or her career. In this book, Meg Cabot has a topic before each new chapter and it is Lizzie's wedding gown guide. I learnt a lot from the guide on wedding gowns, it is really interesting. Also when a new chapter starts, there will be quotes regarding gossip from famous people just like the first book.

This books builds more on Luke and Chaz's characters where we find out more about those two gentlemen who are best friends. We get to see more of Lizzie becoming more mature and responsible and how her friend developed too.The second book definitely had more drama than the first one, I enjoyed this book more than the first where you don't know what to expect from Lizzie and the people around her. The ending of the book is sort of suspended which indicates that there will be another book coming. This is a must read to follow up on Lizzie Nichol's messy, dramatic but yet funny life.