Monthly Archives: December 2020

It’s the last day of 2020 today. Happy New Year’s…..Eve!

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It’s New Year’s Eve today! I still got to work half day but I don’t think I will be productive in work today as the holiday mood and the feeling to celebrate new year already kicks in. Very much excited for this coming long weekend (one after another…last weekend was the long Christmas weekend!) although there is nothing much to do due to the pandemic. If not, I would have return home at KL or even went for a vacation oversea.

Well, it’s still good to take this opportunity to stay at home and get enough rest; a much needed break after a long difficult year. A difficult year that have changed our way of life, and forced us to adapt to new rules and environment such as social distancing, mask up, work from home arrangement, etc.

On this day last year, I remembered clearly I was heading down to the Marina Bay area in the late afternoon with my friend to get a good spot, waited for many hours just to countdown and observe the dazzling new year fireworks display at night. We can’t do that this year unfortunately; the fireworks display at the Marina Bay is cancelled to avoid huge crowd forming.

That is wise move and the government have instead chosen to set off fireworks at 11 different heartland locations this year across Singapore. Perhaps I can head out to catch one in my neighbourhood tonight. There will be not much to expect because the fireworks would be much simpler and smaller in scale compared to the ones we seen in previous years at the Marina Bay. Or maybe I can’t even see one at all because the exact location of the fireworks are not revealed (again to prevent crowd forming).

In the end, fireworks is a must to usher for a new year! I love watching them on the spot too; the loud noise, the colourful display, the creative pattern or synchronization and the happening crowds add a lot to the festive mood. How would you be spending this evening? Will there be fireworks in your city/area tonight?

Ohh…by the way, I am happy to inform that my blog has reached exactly 3.7 million views on the very last day of 2020…and achieved a total of 350 blog followers recently too. What a nice accomplishments to end the year for my blog! Hoping for more views in the coming years…Alright, that’s it for my last post of the year. New year’s greeting to everyone! Cheers for a great 2021!

My selection of the best for TVB series in 2020.

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The TVB Anniversary Awards 2020 set to be held on 10th January 2021 will honour the best of TVB series released this year. Before that ceremony takes place, I’m here to publish my choices, similarly to what I have been doing for the past years. Hence, the result of the awards two weeks later will not affect or influence my judgement and this list is entirely based on my personal view and is also restricted to those series that I have watched (series that I didn’t watch will be left out).

For this year, I have watched a total of 11 dramas. They are:

  • Forensic Heroes 4.
  • Airport Strikers.
  • Brutally Young.
  • The Exorcist’s 2nd Meter.
  • Flying Tiger 2.
  • Death By Zero.
  • Al Cappuccino.
  • Go!Go!Go! Operation C9.
  • Line Walker 3: Bull Fight.
  • Legal Mavericks 2020.
  • The Witness.

Here comes my top 5 picks for each of the following 15 categories and the one in bold for each categories are my selected winners:

OUTSTANDING CAST ENSEMBLE

  • Legal Mavericks 2020
  • The Exorcist’s 2nd Meter
  • Flying Tiger 2
  • Death By Zero
  • Line Walker 3: Bull Fight

OUTSTANDING TV VETERAN ARTIST

  • Susan Tse (The Exorcist’s 2nd Meter)
  • David Chiang (Al Cappuccino)
  • Lee Shing Cheong (Death By Zero, Al Cappuccino, Line Walker 3: Bull Fight, Legal Mavericks 2020)
  • Paul Chun (Legal Mavericks 2020)
  • Lau Kong (The Exorcist’s 2nd Meter, The Witness)

BEST TECHNICAL DESIGNS (VISUAL EFFECTS, SCORES, EDITING. COSTUME, MAKE-UP, PRODUCTION)

  • Forensic Heroes 4
  • Brutally Young
  • The Exorcist’s 2nd Meter
  • Flying Tiger 2
  • Line Walker 3: Bull Fight

MOST FAVOURITE TV VILLAIN

  • Jack Hui (Airport Strikers)
  • Joel Chan (Flying Tiger 2)
  • Kenneth Ma (Line Walker 3: Bull Fight)
  • David Chiang (Al Cappuccino)
  • Tsui Wing (The Witness)

MOST FAVOURITE ON-SCREEN COUPLE

  • Joel Chan & Vivien Yeo (Brutally Young)
  • Vincent Wong & Sisley Choi (Legal Mavericks 2020)
  • Kenneth Ma & Mandy Wong (The Exorcist’s 2nd Meter)
  • Moses Chan & Ali Lee (Death By Zero)
  • Owen Cheung & Sisley Choi (Line Walker 3: Bull Fight)

MOST FAVOURITE DRAMA THEME SONG

  • ‘I Need You Every Minute’ by Joey Thye – ending theme song for ‘Brutally Young’
  •  ‘Confession’ by Fred Cheng – opening theme song for ‘Brutally Young’
  • ‘Mortals Do Not Understand Love’ by Hubert Wu – ending theme song for ‘The Exorcist’s 2nd Meter’
  • ‘Feels Like Heaven’ by Raymond Lam & Hana Kuk – ending theme song for ‘Line Walker 3: Bull Fight’
  • ‘If You Understand’ by Hana Kuk – ending theme song for ‘Airport Strikers’

MOST IMPROVED TV FEMALE ARTIST

  • Vivien Yeo (Brutally Young)
  • Roxanne Tong (Forensic Heroes 4, Airport Strikers)
  • Gloria Tang (Airport Strikers, The Exorcist’s 2nd Meter, Legal Mavericks 2020)
  • Kelly Cheung (Forensic Heroes 4, Legal Mavericks 2020, The Witness)
  • Winki Lai (Al Cappuccino)

MOST IMPROVED TV MALE ARTIST

  • Anthony Ho (Brutally Young, The Exorcist’s 2nd Meter, Death By Zero, Line Walker 3: Bull Fight)
  • Owen Cheung (Airport Strikers, Al Cappuccino, Line Walker 3: Bull Fight, Legal Mavericks 2020)
  • Hugo Wong (Airport Strikers, The Exorcist’s 2nd Meter, Legal Mavericks 2020)
  • Hubert Wu (The Exorcist’s 2nd Meter)
  • Tsui Wing (The Exorcist’s 2nd Meter, Al Cappuccino, Legal Mavericks 2020, The Witness)

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

  • Vivien Yeo (Brutally Young)
  • Susan Tse (The Exorcist’s 2nd Meter)
  • Moon Lau (The Exorcist’s 2nd Meter)
  • Roxanne Tong (Forensic Heroes 4)
  • Elena Kong (Death By Zero)

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

  • Willie Wai (The Witness)
  • Dominic Lam (Brutally Young)
  • Tsui Wing (Al Cappuccino)
  • Hubert Wu (The Exorcist’s 2nd Meter)
  • Owen Cheung (Al Cappuccino)

MOST FAVOURITE TV FEMALE CHARACTER

  • Mandy Wong (Brutally Young)
  • Selena Li (Forensic Heroes 4)
  • Ali Lee (Death By Zero)
  • Sisley Choi (Line Walker 3: Bull Fight)
  • Samantha Ko (Go!Go!Go! Operation C9)

MOST FAVOURITE TV MALE CHARACTER

  • Kenneth Ma (The Exorcist’s 2nd Meter)
  • Vincent Wong (Al Cappuccino)
  • Raymond Lam (Line Walker 3: Bull Fight)
  • Bosco Wong (Flying Tiger 2)
  • Moses Chan (Death By Zero)

BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

  • Mandy Wong (Brutally Young)
  • Ali Lee (Death By Zero)
  • Sisley Choi (Legal Mavericks 2020)
  • Selena Li (Forensic Heroes 4)
  • Samantha Ko (Go!Go!Go! Operation C9)

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

  • Raymond Lam (Line Walker 3: Bull Fight)
  • Shaun Tam (Brutally Young)
  • Kenneth Ma (The Exorcist’s 2nd Meter)
  • Wayne Lai (Death By Zero)
  • Vincent Wong (Legal Mavericks 2020)

BEST SERIES

  • Brutally Young
  • The Exorcist’s 2nd Meter
  • Flying Tiger 2
  • Legal Mavericks 2020
  • Line Walker 3: Bull Fight

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

4 movie reviews today on Christmas Day.

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I have been watching quite a number of new movies recently to catch up on a bit of my inactivity in this hobby earlier this year. Without wasting more time, here are my quick review to the following films:

Tenet (2020)

This sci-fi action thriller film directed by Christopher Nolan tells the story of a secret agent (Washington) who manipulates the flow of time to prevent World War III. The plot doesn’t sound as simple as that actually. In fact, it is far more complicated than just being a ‘time travel’ movie. It is always not easy to grasp on Nolan’s film and it usually takes two or more viewing to truly understand it (but I won’t because I don’t find this movie enjoyable and worth my second viewing). He is brilliant in adding depth to his movies but this isn’t my type of movie. I enjoyed his past ones like ‘Inception’ and ‘The Dark Knight’. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Tenet’ a total of 6.8.

Freaky (2020)

‘Freaky’ is a comedy slasher film which centers on a teenage girl who unintentionally switches bodies with a middle-aged male serial killer. First of all, it’s a very interesting direction to blend horror and comedy here. It ended up creating a gory yet funny film to watch. Vince Vaughn delivered a notable performance here portraying as the girl who are trapped in a body of male serial killer. He is a big guy but funny to watch from his expressions and movements required for the character. The film is also surprisingly gory with some graphic murder scenes to spice up the ‘slasher’ side. In summary, it’s a solid comedy slasher film and I would rate it a total of 7.5.

Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

This film is the only decent superhero film this year (the other one; The New Mutants also released this year is bad…let’s not get to there). Wonder Woman 1984 is a sequel to 2017’s Wonder Woman. The movie sets in 1984 during the Cold War and follows Diana and her past love, Steve as they face off against Max Lord and Cheetah. The film starred Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Kristen Wig, Pedro Pascal, etc. It is quite a long movie but I never felt bored in any point. The actions are awesome, Gal Gadot is no doubt the perfect choice for this iconic Wonder Woman role, the performances by the cast are on point, the visuals are good, and the last segment is climactic, intense and thrilling. The play of wishes in the movie is also kind of a fresh direction in a superhero film. This is really a decent film and I don’t mind seeing more of solo Wonder Woman films. Out of 10 points, I rate Wonder Woman 1984 a total of 8.4.

Monster Hunter (2020)

This is a monster film that revolves on a female liutenant and her soldiers who are accidentally transported to a new world and had to engage in a desperate battle for survival against enormous enemies. Many are complaining of the underdeveloped characters and thin storyline to the film but I actually don’t see that as a need for this kind of film. Adding that may turn the movie draggy and boring at times but I do agree to add a bit of that (not a lot) just to get us a bit more connected with the characters. They should have also explained more of the new world and the monsters to us. The visual effects in this movie are very impressive (the monsters and the landscape look so good and realistic) but the editing is poor (especially of the action scenes…quite distracting). Milla Jovovich, the main lead of the film seems to be never ages (remember her very well in Resident Evil film series). Out of 10 points, I rate Monster Hunter a total of 7.0. It is filled with a lot of epic monster scenes and that’s what I’m looking for mostly.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

Merry Christmas! Stay safe when celebrating…

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Merry Christmas everyone!

Although Christmas events or gatherings have to be scaled down this year, do not let them be an excuse to ruin this festive season. We can still celebrate in a more humble manner, in whichever way we may find as long as we continue to stay safe.

This year may be hard for us but may this Christmas season will still fill your home with joy, your heart with love, and your life with laughter. And may the New Year be full of adventure!

May the Christmas season end the present year on a cheerful note and make way for a fresh and bright New Year. Season’s Greetings to you all!

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

Summary of films in 2020 I have watched.

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As usual in this time of the year, I will write a post to compile on all the films released this year that I have watched (updated as of 18th April 2021) along with the ratings I gave for each of these films (out of full five stars). So here it goes, with my personal top 10 films in bold below:

Hollywood Films in 2020 I have watched:

  1. Underwater. ★★★1/2
  2. Dolittle. ★★★1/2
  3. The Invisible Man. ★★★★1/2
  4. Sonic The Hedgehog. ★★★★
  5. Don’t Speak. ★★1/2
  6. Brahms: The Boy 2. ★★★
  7. The Hunt. ★★★1/2
  8. Birds Of Prey. ★★1/2
  9. Onward. ★★★★
  10. Sea Fever. ★★
  11. Fantasy Island. ★★★★
  12. 1BR. ★★★★
  13. Vivarium. ★★★1/2
  14. Proximity. ★★
  15. Scoob. ★★1/2
  16. 7500. ★★★
  17. Shirley. ★★
  18. Becky. ★★1/2
  19. Two Heads Creek. ★★1/2
  20. Outback. ★★★
  21. Funhouse. ★★★★
  22. The Clearing. ★★1/2
  23. The Beach House. ★★1/2
  24. Open 24 Hours. ★★★1/2
  25. Swallow. ★★1/2
  26. The Rental. ★★1/2
  27. Deep Blue Sea 3. ★★1/2
  28. Yummy. ★★★
  29. You Should Have Left. ★★★1/2
  30. Resistance. ★★★1/2
  31. Solar Impact. ★
  32. Host. ★★★1/2
  33. Black Water: Abyss.  ★★★★
  34. Greenland. ★★★1/2
  35. Stalker’s Prey 2. ★★1/2
  36. Escape: Puzzle Of Fear. ★1/2
  37. Clownface. ★
  38. The Honeymoon Phase. ★★★
  39. The One And Only Ivan. ★★★1/2
  40. Followed. ★★1/2
  41. Mulan. ★★★★1/2
  42. The Owners. ★★★
  43. The Babysitter: Killer Queen. ★★
  44. The War With Grandpa. ★★★★
  45. No Escape. ★★★★
  46. Save Yourselves. ★★
  47. Tremors: Shrieker Island. ★★
  48. Death Of Me. ★★1/2
  49. Love and Monsters. ★★★★
  50. Antebellum. ★★
  51. Unhinged. ★★★★1/2
  52. Ghosts of War. ★★★★
  53. Shark Season. ★1/2
  54. Triggered. ★★★1/2
  55. Come Play. ★★★★1/2
  56. The New Mutants. ★★★
  57. Tenet. ★★★1/2
  58. The Croods: A New Age. ★★★★★
  59. Freaky. ★★★★
  60. Wonder Woman 1984. ★★★★
  61. Blood Quantum. ★1/2
  62. Monster Hunter. ★★★1/2
  63. Soul. ★★★★★
  64. The Witches. ★★★★
  65. Archive. ★★1/2
  66. Come Away. ★★
  67. Skylines. ★★★
  68. Shadow In The Cloud. ★★★★
  69. Hunter Hunter. ★★★1/2
  70. Butchers. ★★1/2
  71. Run Hide Fight. ★★★★
  72. Horizon Line. ★★★★
  73. Breach. ★★★
  74. Over The Moon. ★★★★
  75. Anything For Jackson. ★★★1/2
  76. Bigfoot Family. ★★★★
  77. Nomadland. ★★★1/2
  78. The Wolf Of Snow Hollow. ★★1/2
  79. Minari. ★★★1/2
  80. Possessor. ★★★1/2
  81. The Father. ★★★★1/2
  82. The Willoughbys. ★★★1/2
  83. Sound Of Metal. ★★★1/2
  84. The Assistant. ★★★
  85. The Empty Man. ★★★
  86. Alone. ★★★★
  87. Vampires vs. The Bronx. ★★1/2

Other Foreign Films in 2020 I have watched:

  1. In My Heart (Malaysia). ★★★★
  2. Enter The Fat Dragon (Hong Kong). ★★★★
  3. The Grand Grandmaster (Hong Kong). ★1/2
  4. The Platform (Spain). ★★
  5. Train To Busan Presents: Peninsula (South Korea). ★★★1/2
  6. #Alive (South Korea). ★★★★1/2
  7. A Choo (Taiwan). ★★★
  8. Sputnik (Russia). ★★1/2
  9. The Blackout (Russia). ★★1/2
  10. Okay! Madam (South Korea). ★★★★1/2
  11. Vanguard (China). ★★★★
  12. Fukushima 50 (Japan). ★★★★
  13. Pinocchio (Italy). ★★★
  14. Sky Sharks (Germany). ★1/2
  15. Your Name Engraved Herein (Taiwan). ★★★★
  16. Fatal Visit (Hong Kong). ★★★
  17. The Rescue (China). ★★★★
  18. The Superdeep (Russia). ★★★
  19. Land Shark (China). ★★★
  20. King Of Snake (China). ★★1/2

As of 18th April 2021, I have watched a total of 107 films. I have watched slightly lesser films this year mostly because there are not many movie releases this year due to the on-going pandemic that causes postponement of theatrical release of many major blockbusters to next year. However, I still managed to accomplish the 100-films milestones for 2020 films.

By the way, I have watched way more foreign language films this year. There are more foreign films that appeal to me this year and also there are very limited Hollywood films, hence I frequently expanded my search to foreign films whenever I want to find a movie to watch this year.

Everything is affected by the Covid-19 pandemic this year, and movie market is not an exception. Worldwide cinemas were closed for months and movie releases postponed to 2021 as highlighted earlier. Hence, none of any movies this year is even able to cross US$ 1 billion in grossing as compared to 9 films alone for last year (2019). The highest grossing 2020 film so far is ‘The Eight Hundred’, a film by China that only appeals to their country’s market (which is large enough) and has grossed a total of US$ 461 million only. On the other hand, ‘Bad Boys For Life’ is the highest grossing Hollywood film at US$ 426 million.

Here are my top 10 favourite films of the year (also highlighted in bold above).

Here is my personal selection of the best in the following 25 categories:

Best Film: The Father

Best Director: Florian Zeller (The Father)

Best Leading Actor: Anthony Hopkins (The Father)

Best Leading Actress: Elisabeth Moss (The Invisible Man)

Best Supporting Actor: Pedro Pascal (Wonder Woman 1984)

Best Supporting Actress: Youn Yuh-jung (Minari)

Best Young Performer: Alan Kim (Minari)

Best Original Screenplay: Okay! Madam

Best Adapted Screenplay: The Father

Best Cast Ensemble: Okay! Madam

Best Film Editing: The Father

Best Cinematography: Nomadland

Best Production Design: The Father

Best Action Choreography: Vanguard

Best Visual Effects: Monster Hunter

Best Original Score: Soul

Best Original Song: ‘Your Name Engraved Herein’ from ‘Your Name Engraved Herein’

Best Sound Mixing and Editing: Sound of Metal

Best Costume Design: Mulan

Best Make-Up and Hair-Styling: Mulan

Best Youth / Superhero Film: Wonder Woman 1984

Best Horror / Supernatural Film: Come Play

Best Musical / Comedy Film: Okay! Madam

Best Sci-Fi / Fantasy Film: The Invisible Man

Best Action / Thriller Film: #Alive

Best Animated Film: Soul

This post will be occasionally updated from time to time as I catch up with more 2020 films later on.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

Year 2020….heavily defined by the Covid-19 pandemic.

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2020 for the world

Year 2020 is coming to an end. It has turned out to be a very undesirable year for everyone due to the Covid-19 pandemic that last way longer than we expected and had impacted all of us in every angles. It has led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

There were news saying that the virus was actually not originating from Wuhan, China and that the virus had actually been present way earlier in 2019. But these didn’t bother us anymore as our attention shifts to finding ways to bring the numbers down, contain the virus through vaccines, and ways to resume the economy. Safe distancing and enhanced hygiene measures are still in place, and looks like we have to continue wearing mask when going out for at least another year.

Major global events planned this year such as the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games, Dubai 2020 World Expo, the UEFA Euro 2020, 2020 Thomas and Uber Cup, etc are postponed to next year. By the way, things still remain uncertain even in 2021 as the daily cases remain very high in many countries across the world. As of now, worldwide coronavirus cases have gone close to 80 million with about 1.7 million deaths. There is still no sign of slowing down. It’s quite certain that this will drag on for at least another year even with the arrival of many upcoming certified vaccines.

Other notable events in 2020 that worth highlighting here are the explosion at a port in Beirut on August 4 that killed over 200 people (a blast that looks like it was straight out of a war movie scene), Joe Biden defeating the incumbent Donald Trump in the US presidential election in November and South Korean film ‘Parasite’ becoming the first non-English language film winning Best Picture at the Academy Awards (Oscars) in February.

A major event happened closer to home on February 2020 was the collapse of Pakatan Harapan government in Malaysia and is replaced by Perikatan Nasional coalition that saw the parties lost in the previous 2018 general election coming back to power. Muhyiddin Yassin becomes the new Prime Minister from this backdoor government that is not voted by the people.

2020 FOR ME

Since February, I am no longer able to travel back home (at KL) due to the Covid-19 travel restrictions. I used to return home once or twice every month before that. Over here in Singapore, circuit breaker (a more beautiful term than ‘lockdown’) was implemented for two months from April to June, followed by phased openings on subsequent months (Phase 3 opening will commence on 28 December). Working from home has become the norm…and it’s one week in the office, one week at home work schedule for me now.

I moved to a new room/unit in September to change environment after having stayed in the previous room/unit for more than 2 years. On the other hand, I have bought myself a new iPhone 12 Pro in October to replace my previous iPhone 7 which I have used for over 4 years. I have traveled to Egypt on January during the Chinese New Year holiday with my parents and have traveled to Penang on February with my friend (these was all before the pandemic kicks in). After that, I can only travel within this tiny island of Singapore.

I wish 2021 would be much better for everyone…

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

Christmas mood is up with all these illuminations at Gardens by the Bay.

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It’s the time of the year again for the annual Christmas Wonderland event at the Gardens by The Bay. My first time visiting it was just last year, and this year, I’m heading back to the event which is revamped due to the current pandemic. For this year, most of the activities/interactions available in previous years were shifted to online digital version while the only available physical event is the Walk of Lights; a stretch of path near the Supertrees area filled with beautiful light installations.

There is no Santa for you to meet and handshake. There is no physical games or X’mas activities to have fun. There is no pop-up food kiosks to satisfy your stomach. There is no ‘fake snow’ falling to make you feel like you are in the winter. We get to have all these in previous years (though separate fees applied). Even without all the above, you still get to immerse into the Christmas mood through the spectacular light installations that only cost SGD$5 to enter.

It’s certainly time for a lot of picture taking again. The weather also has been nice yesterday with no rain (it’s raining daily here in Singapore this month).

However, there was still an unpleasant experience while visiting the Walk of Lights. I understand the need of crowd control to minimize the crowd in this time of pandemic but I was really bothered by the way the staff over there who kept forcing us to move forward quickly without giving us sufficient time to take pictures and enjoy the installations. One of the staff even rudely shouted ‘this place is not for you to take picture. Go forward.’ Not even a ‘please’ word from him. He even intentionally stood in the middle at the entrance of the light tunnel to prevent people from taking pictures. That’s like literally a photogenic spot.

Due to this, I don’t even have time to take a second shot if my first shot is undesired. If there is constantly crowd building in the area, it means you allow too many people in at the same time. There are different sessions already allocated to visitors and yet still huge crowd of people forming. Certainly the limited capacity has been exceeded. Anyway, the light installations are quite cool and it only costs you 5 dollars to enter. So it’s very much worth a visit to get you right into the festive Christmas mood!

The boyfriends won the latest season of The Amazing Race.

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Watching ‘The Amazing Race’ reality game show is one of my favourite things to do. I have started watching it about a decade ago and the idea of getting teams completing tasks while travelling around the world to win the 1 million dollars in the end is pretty exciting to me. The latest season, Season 32 saw its final episode aired yesterday with the boyfriends, Will and James winning the race.

While many hated the idea of forming alliance from the very beginning of the race till the second last leg, I actually find it a good strategy by the 3 teams (in that alliance) to keep moving forward with a bit of help when necessary. But then, I do agree that each teams should actually work on their own most of the time. Hence, I’m not against forming alliance in the race, but there should be rules in future seasons to limit or prevent aid from other teams especially when major hints are involved. Also by the way, James were a bit unnecessarily mean in several legs.

The other two teams that compete together in the final leg are Hung and Chee and Riley and Maddison. The former are always steady in their course while the latter are actually quite a strong team but luck is not on their side in the last leg (the most crucial) when they got delayed a lot by the taxi trip en-route to get the first clue. If not, I can actually see them winning instead of the boyfriends. The boyfriends did get a lot of help in earlier legs. They were quite lousy in certain tasks earlier (like driving on sticks, etc) but still managed to pull through as they do sail through very quickly on some other tasks too especially the ones in the last leg which are the most critical.

Also I felt that the tasks for this season were a bit easy. Anyway, I do enjoyed every seasons of this reality game show. And this one is much more enjoyable in this time around when all of us cannot travel as it made us felt like we had travelled across the world too with the teams throughout the race. Anyway, congratulations to Will and James…and the moment when Will proposed to James after they were announced the winner at the final pit stop was quite touching.

I have read news that the next new season (Season 33) had actually started filming early this year but came to a halt due to the pandemic. That’s sad. It shows how huge the impact of this Covid-19 pandemic to almost everything. Hope this pandemic will be over very soon so that they can resume filming / continue on the race and that I don’t need to wait very long for the next season (Season 33).

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

TVB Anniversary Awards 2020 nomination list is out.

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The nomination list for the TVB Anniversary Awards 2020 is finally out today. TVB hold a press conference this afternoon (broadcast live through social medias) to announce the nomination list for their annual awards presentation. The presentation ceremony will be held on the evening of 10th January 2021 and there will be a total of 17 awards to be presented including 3 new awards that represents votes from Malaysia for favourite drama, leading actor and leading actress.

I won’t list down the full nomination list (because it is very long, and basically if you have acted in a TVB series released this year, you are basically nominated…hence there is not much of a high value of being nominated actually). This year, we see a lot of very young, inexperienced and unfamiliar faces getting not even one but multiple nominations (well, that’s actually what we see in these recent years too). Most of the popular artistes have left the station unfortunately.

I have watched a total of 11 TVB series this year. My top 5 pick for best actor would be Shaun Tam (Brutally Young), Raymond Lam (Line Walker 3), Wayne Lai (Death By Zero), Vincent Wong (Legal Mavericks 2020) and Kenneth Ma (Line Walker 3). Out of the 5, only Shaun and Raymond have not win it before and in terms of experience, I would give it to Raymond since Line Walker 3 is also his comeback drama after many years. He is nevertheless doing good in the series too and he is considered overdue as well.

My top 3 pick for best actress would be Selena Li (Forensic Heroes 4), Ali Lee (Death By Zero) and Sisley Choi (Legal Mavericks 2020). Why only top 3 pick for actress? Well, the category for leading actress is very weak this year. I can’t choose anymore from the list to fill in to 5 slots. Also in my opinion, I felt Samantha Ko should be nominated for Go!Go!Go! Operation C9 instead of Al Cappuccino and Mandy Wong for Brutally Young instead of Line Walker 3 (would have higher chance for that but still won’t be able to win).

My top 5 pick for best drama would be Brutally Young, Legal Mavericks 2020, Line Walker 3, The Exorcist’s 2nd Meter and Flying Tiger 2. Out of these 5, my pick would be Line Walker 3. I’m not mad if Brutally Young win too (my second pick). My second runner-up would be Legal Mavericks 2020. Not much comment on supporting actor and actresses, and other categories.

Nearly a full day trip to Singapore Zoo…and River Safari.

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There are a lot of promotions going on (mostly discounted ticket prices) to visit attractions here especially for this month. Hence, you would probably see me posting a lot of trip pictures recently. We all can’t go out of Singapore (due to the current pandemic), and hence why not explore what’s inside this tiny island especially with these offers going on.

I have heard a lot of good words on Singapore Zoo but have never personally visited the place. It is also frequently rated everywhere as one of the best zoos in the world. Then, I saw a recent promotion whereby I can visit both the zoo and the River Safari (which is just besides the zoo) by only adding a few dollars extra to the single ticket entry to the zoo. This is very enticing and although I have visited the river safari before but I don’t mind going again because it is worth a second visit too in my opinion.

Yesterday was the day of my visit to the zoo along with my friend. I reached there at about 11.30am and spent nearly 4 hours in the zoo. The weather was kind to us and it only started raining when we have nearly finished covering the entire zoo in the afternoon. The only unfortunate thing is that we missed all the three live shows available due to the non-matching schedule and the limited capacity of each shows due to the Covid-19 restrictions. Anyway, here are some of the photos I took during the visit to this famous zoo:

Here are shots took in the River Safari:

I do enjoy the experience in both the zoo and the river safari. Although it is raining cats and dogs during my visit to the river safari, but it didn’t bother us much because most of the sights in the river safari are indoor. We did get wet though because we went on the outdoor boat ride for the Amazon River Quest and it’s still drizzling that time.

We spent around 2 hours and 30 minutes in the river safari and left the place at 6pm. Both of us had sore legs after the trip. Haha…the trip involves a lot of walking. Yes, I felt very exhausted after the visit but I do thoroughly enjoyed my time there. I saw a lot of animals in their properly maintained areas that do not feel like an enclosure at all. It is like they are roaming freely in their habitat. That is good. Now I knew why it is rated one of the best zoos in the world.

I have now visited three out of the four parks available under the Wildlife Reserves Singapore. I visited the Night Safari just two months ago as well. Hence, the only one left for me to visit is the Jurong Bird Park. To be honest, it is my least favourite pick out of the four and hence it is the last in my list. Maybe I’m going to visit it somewhere next year to complete all the 4-parks mission.