Happy 63rd National Day, Malaysia!

Happy 63rd birthday to my home country, Malaysia! I do feel proud of being a Malaysian. I love many aspects of the country but I sincerely felt that there are huge room of improvement and that the nation is lagging behind in various areas. I do wish for the best to my beloved country. It is after all my place of birth and the country where I have lived for over 25 years (I have been staying more at oversea recently due to my postgraduate study in the past in Australia and my current job in Singapore).

(Image above from Tourism Malaysia)

My family, relatives and friends got to enjoy the long National Day weekend vacationing at Genting or even on another state. For people in Singapore like me, we have no other state to travel to and we are stuck in this small island until more lifting of border restrictions (hopefully soon so that at least I can travel to JB or back to home in KL for short leave). Staying in this island for more than 2 years, I do felt the desire of Singaporeans to get out of here once in a while for a breath of fresh air or for a real vacation/getaway.

I spent the past week browsing for new home and went for several house viewing in the past weekend. I decided to move to a new place for a new environment and to get a house that is closer to MRT. I am also getting tired of how unfriendly my current landlord is and I’m now looking for room without any owner staying together that will certainly give me more freedom and privacy. After several thoughts and multiple house viewing, I have finally decided on one place which is actually not far from where I’m currently staying. I will be moving to new place mid of next month!

Now looking at all the stuff I have in my current room, it’s really true that moving out is not easy. I guess I have to make multiple trips back and forth to transfer all my stuff to the new place. Packing…and then unpacking…for a couple of times. But that is fine. I would be very much willing to do that as I would be moving to a much better place (the new place is a much bigger room in a condo that has facilities like pool and gym, and the condo is quite near to the MRT which is good!).

That’s it for my update today. It’s already the last day of the month! There will be a lot of good things coming in for September (moving in to new place as mentioned earlier, my blog’s 12th anniversary, going to visit Night Safari mid of next month too, etc). Can’t wait for them all! Have a great month ahead, everyone!

 

More time at home = more time on Youtube.

Although circuit breaker has been lifted up quite a while ago, we are all still encouraged to stay at home as much as possible as the Covid-19 is far from over. Singapore still observes new daily cases in double-digit although community transmission remains low.

So for most of us, we spent most of our time at home (for about half a year by now). With so much time at home besides than your usual sleeping period and work-at-home routine, we all sure to have spend more time online; browsing social media, playing games, watching movies/dramas/clips, video calling with friends/families, etc.

I am in no exception to that. In particular, I do browse and watch more Youtube videos in these few months when I’m at home to get past the boredom. There are some contents I recently discovered that are quite entertaining and got my interest straight away and with no hesitation to subscribe to those related channels.

First of all is travel vlogs. If you like watching travel vlogs by Youtubers, you sure would have heard of this couple named Kara and Nate. They are extremely famous travel influencers who had visited over 100 countries in the past 4 years (I guess) and shared their vlogs on Youtube while earning big bucks from them. Even the current restriction for oversea travel did not stop them from putting up new videos as they have now purchased a camper van and travel all around within their own country (USA). Who say domestic travel isn’t enjoyable and their country is so huge. And their videos would make us very eager to travel again soon…

Next up is comedy shows. Everyone needs laughter especially in this time when depression can easily strikes to anyone that is directly or indirectly affected by this coronavirus and the lockdown. I do enjoyed watching comedy talk shows by popular Singaporean comedian like Kumar, Malaysian entertainer like Harith Iskandar, Jimmy O.Yang, etc. Also not to forget Nigel Ng (a Malaysian based in UK) who had his very hilarious reaction video towards an egg fried rice cooking guide from BBC that went super viral and is even featured in news report.

Other Singaporean channels that I newly subscribed and constantly followed are NOC (very famous channel that provides fun videos and I particularly like their Food King episodes that show us location of many good food across in Singapore), BenRanAway (two brothers sharing their funny videos by doing challenges such as visiting worst reviewed hotel, trying worst reviewed salon, eating 24 meals in a day, etc) and Zermatt Neo (a competitive eater who takes on challenges to eat huge amount of food in a split second).

Next is a reality show called ‘Master in the House’ produced by China’s television studio. It featured a group of young boy band (7 person in total) spending few days with a famous person they would call as ‘master’ in the duration. One of the many ‘masters’ in the show is none other than Sammi Cheng, my favourite Cantopop female singer. It was quite entertaining to watch how these young boys interact with one another, with their master (one master in 2 episodes) and with their manager who is a very funny guy and provides huge comedic content to the show. I seldom watch reality show but this one got me engaged. It has a total of 13 episodes and I watched it all (they are all available on Youtube).

Last but not least, I do find myself enjoy watching a lot of aerial videos of Kuala Lumpur, highlighting particularly the beautiful city skyline (both in the day or evening), the latest progress of PNB118 Tower (tallest skyscraper under construction in the city and will be the second tallest in the world once completed) and other major constructions across the city. Watching them makes me feel closer to home too since I cannot return to my home in KL at the moment due to the Covid-19 restrictions to oversea travel.

Have you heard or watched any of these videos (or related ones) mentioned above that I have recently take a liking to? It all comes down to own preference. Some would have been more interested into music videos, sport competitions, news or other categories when browsing through Youtube. But most of all, Youtube has made our life less bored particularly this year when we spend most of our time at home.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

 

‘Super thin skyscraper’ trend in New York City.

Building skyscrapers appear to be the norm for any growing cities across the world. China has been the forefront for over a decade in race to build supertall buildings. However, recently, the country approved multiple laws that prohibit future buildings in the country from exceeding 500m in height, ban copycat architecture, restrict construction of strange-looking buildings, etc. This move made a number of on-going skyscraper proposals in the country to be scaled down and we are no longer looking at China for new huge skyscrapers at the time-being.

Hence, we shall shift our focus back to the West…or specifically back to New York City; the city that witnessed the birth of skyscrapers from about a century ago. New York City is a super dense city that are packed with buildings from classical to contemporary style. In recent years, a particular area in the city known to be the ‘Billionaires Row’ is getting the attention due to the rising of several new skyscrapers. They are no ordinary skyscrapers and they carry one similar characteristic; super thin.

The city’s zoning loopholes that allow a developer to acquire unused airspace nearby and add it to their own lot enable construction of super thin/skinny/slender buildings and the result is what we saw now at the Billionaires Row which is located at southern end of the Central Park. These luxurious towers (mostly residential buildings that offer some of the country’s most expensive penthouses) that took advantage of views of Central Park seem to defy gravity with jaw-dropping width-to-height ratio.

One57 Tower is the first in a series of supertall skyscrapers built along that area in Manhattan which maximises on the city’s zoning loopholes mentioned earlier. The 306m high, 75 floors tower is completed in 2014.

However, it was the 432 Park Avenue Tower that caught our attention when it is built in 2015 due to its super slender design. The 90-storey tower reaches a height of 426m and an impressive building width to height ratio of 1:15. This building is the first ever super slender skyscraper in the city (if not, the world).

The next slender tower to rise is the 53W53 Tower that rises to 320m tall with 77 storeys and width to height ratio of 1:12. This tower sculptural form makes it look cool and futuristic.

Expected to be completed this year, the Central Park Tower will be the tallest residential building in the world. Soaring to over 472m with 98 floors, the tower has a building width-to-height ratio of 1:23. That is crazy…

Now, this next tower is even crazier; it has a width-to-height ratio of 1:24 and claims the title of world’s thinnest skyscraper. It is the 111 West 57th Street Tower, also set to be completed this year. Standing at a height of 436m with 82 floors, its slenderness is out of the world. It looks as thin as a piece of paper! Would the tower sway a lot?!. But with advanced engineering these days, the structure’s stability had all been considered to ensure occupants’ comfort in the building.

Overall view of the Billionaires Row below. I would love to get a penthouse unit there, in one of those towers…it’s not even 10pm and I’m already dreaming…haha.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

Movie review for ‘Greenland’ and ‘Black Water: Abyss’.

Yup…I managed to do everything according to the plans for last weekend. I was able to watch the Singapore’s National Day fireworks last Sunday although it lasted only for 5 minutes and I was in a spot that doesn’t have a full clear view of the display. I went to the Gardens by the Bay and had my dinner at the Satay by the Bay. It was almost 8pm after we finished the dinner and so me and my friend just waited at the car park area outside the food court for the fireworks along with many others. The whole promenade along the bay was closed off to prevent crowd from forming but I think barricading the area actually made the situation worse. People were then packed into smaller area behind the promenade to catch the view of the fireworks. 1m social distancing rule became 1cm that evening.

As for my movie marathon in my previous post, yes…I was able to catch up on quite a number of new movies recently especially during the previous long weekend. For today, I would only write my review to 2 of those films I have watched recently.

Let me start with ‘Greenland’. It is a disaster film that revolves on an estranged family that tries to survive an extinction-level event. As a fan who loves disaster movies, I am a little disappointed by the very little focus the movie placed on the destruction scenes caused by the falling comet. The ‘disaster’ part only plays very minor role in this story that focuses very heavily on the family drama between the main characters. Although the latter is still a good part of the film but I felt things are not in balance. There are also some draggy scenes and the ending reminds me a lot of the ending of ‘2012’ movie. Very predictable and happy ending as expected.

Gerard Butler did a solid job in this movie as the father/husband who tried his best to bring his family to safety. Same goes to Morena Baccarin as his wife. Overall, ‘Greenland’ is still a good movie to watch especially in this time when there are not many movie choices at the cinemas. A little less thrilling as anticipated earlier, I would rate ‘Greenland’ a total of 6.9 out of 10. Old disaster movies like ‘2012’, ‘San Andreas’, and ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ were much more entertaining. Did you notice that all these movies follow very similar plot (father trying to save his family). Can future disaster movies refrain from adopting this very formulaic storyline? (it’s used too many times).

Next up is a crocodile film; ‘Black Water: Abyss’. It follows a group of five friends who are hunted by a crocodile while exploring a remote underground cave system. Yes…very similar kind of storyline too for this type of movie but at least I find this one a little more enjoyable. There are quite a number of intense scenes to keep me thrilled and engaged as the characters tried to find their way out and escape from the crocodile’s territory. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Black Water: Abyss’ a total of 7.0. The ending slightly ruined it for me though.

That’s it for my post today. It is already mid of August now.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

Movie marathon in this long National Day weekend.

Hooray! The long weekend has arrived…thanks to the National Day that falls on this Sunday (hence Monday is made a replacement holiday). Singapore will be celebrating its 55th National Day this year in a manner different to the previous years due to the on-going pandemic. The annual National Day Parade (NDP) is broken into two segments, reduced in scale and will have very little number of audiences. Fireworks will still be set off but not at the usual spot at the popular Marina Bay area (to prevent crowds) but rather at 10 different heartland locations in the country.

There is no fireworks display around my neighborhood for me to watch and I would be heading to the city on this Sunday from afternoon to evening to catch a movie. If condition allows and the timing is right, I wish I can catch a glance of the fireworks set off from the Marina Reservoir area which is only a mere distance away from Marina Bay and the CBD this Sunday.

If this Covid-19 doesn’t exist, I would have been in the bus now heading back to my home in KL for this awesome long weekend. Unfortunately, we can’t. I’m stuck over here in Singapore with nothing much I can do besides than visiting malls and catching up on new movies. Hence, I think I’m going to have movie marathon in this long weekend.

After watching ‘Peninsula’ not long ago, I do discovered another very recent Korean zombie film called ‘#Alive’. The film revolves on a young boy trapped inside his apartment alone during a sudden zombie outbreak in the city and had to find ways to survive. This film isn’t getting any wide cinema release or attention from the public but it deserves so. I had a good time watching it last week. I even felt that this movie is better than ‘Peninsula’.

Besides than movies, I have also recently finished another TVB drama; 30 episodes in total. The drama is called ‘Death By Zero’ and it revolves on a group of assassins in Hong Kong. TVB seldom ventures into this genre and given the good cast the series has (Wayne Lai, Moses Chan. Ali Lee, etc), I’m looking forward to it. It turns out that the series is not bad, but is not impressive either.

The series also starred Samantha Ko, James Ng, Elena Kong, Katy Kung, Louisa Mak, Brian Tse, Timothy Cheng, etc. The cast delivered solid performance nonetheless. The chemistry between the leads are very good too especially the Moses-Ali pair. However, the plot still becomes too predictable and the many build-up of scenes do not appear intense or dramatic to me. Also not to forget the unnecessary costume and make-up on Katy Kung’s character that have gone overboard. With the premise less explored in the past and a solid cast, this series could have the potential and all the necessary ingredients for it to be a standout but it fails to get there. Anyway, it is still a good series to kill my time in the evening of every weekdays. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Death By Zero’ a total of 6.8.

Okay…that’s it for my post today. Have a great long weekend, and to all Singaporeans, Happy National Day!

(Images in this post are from various online sources)