NON-STOP

Liam Neeson is really something. At 60 something, he is really an unlikely hero who struck a chord in me since I first started seeing him play an action hero years ago in the movie "Taken". His voice was strong, commanding and forceful, which served him very well recently as the voice-over of the schizophrenic policeman in "The Lego Movie".

I think this movie came out at a bad time when the MH370 plane from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing went missing few weeks ago. This movie is about terrorism but Liam Neeson's character Bill Marks the air marshal was framed to be the scapegoat. Much as he wanted to save the flight and its passengers from going down, he was set up to take the blame and news of him taking over the plane was broadcasted all over the international news. Fortunately for his wit, he was able to help the co-pilot secure a safe landing with no casualties, other than the terrorists and a few unfortunate victims. I was gripping the edge of my seat throughout the movie.

Sadly, in real life, no one truly knows what happened to the missing plane yet.

Julianne Moore as one of the passengers who helped Bill

KUALA LUMPUR

This is the last post for me in 2013. Instead of joining any countdown party, here I am at home posting this.

When I was at the Pavilion shopping mall 3 years ago, I remembered it just opened its doors. Now it was decked with Christmas decor everywhere and Christmas carols imbued the air. 

The entire place was so packed with shoppers and the atmosphere was extraordinarily vibrant. The snow flakes really took my breath away.

That night, I bought a few shirts at Lot 10 but didn't manage to go to Sungei Wang.

Shine bright like the snowflakes at Pavilion!

Nice white cottage house

Shoppers were everywhere!

I have always love snow flakes!

Beautiful blossoms artwork made of buttons!

The Line App mascots and characters were all over.

Parkson's

Phoenix vase

View from Westin

What was mundane looking in the day became extraordinary with the lights at night.

Christmas decor at Lot 10

KUALA LUMPUR

Actually, I do love to go to KL and I did that from 11-12 Jun 10.

The 1st photo showed the silhouette of an artistically shaped tree covered by climbers. It was taken near the evening time. Guess what shopping centre was shown in photo 2?

Photo 3 showed the flowers of the beautiful Leea angulata. The 4th and 5th photos showed a pretty adult cat and a kitten. Well, the final and 6th photo showed the birds on the wall of the hotel at 1 Utama Shopping Centre.

JUSTICIA BRANDEGEANA

This Shrimp Plant from the Acanthaceae Family is one of my all time favourites. In books though, I often see a range of coloured bracts, varying from orangey yellowish pink to red.

I first saw this plant about 5 years ago at a Paya Lebar industrial building area near the entrance guard house. When I went back in 2008, the bedding plant was no longer there because the site was affected by the Circle Line construction.

These photos taken on 12 Jan 10 showed a free flowering shrub with gorgeously red bracts, which are often mistaken as the flowers. The true flowers are pink and can be seen subtended by the red bracts.

During a recent trip to the Secret Garden @ One Utama at Kuala Lumpur, we found some yellow bract variety that differs from the more common but equally gorgeous Pachystachys lutea, whose inflorescence is more upright with white flowers. Hopefully, this yellow variety would see the light of day in HortPark soon.

DAY 2 - CAMERON HIGHLANDS AND KUALA LUMPUR

The second day saw us leaving visiting Cameron Highlands butterfly farm around 9 am. The morning was cool but what greeted me shocked me so much!

The way and speed the worker fished out the butterflies from between white folded sheets of paper from the styrofoam box full of butterflies was beyond my words. I didn't know the butterflies could survive from such treatment.

According to the worker, the butterflies were harvested fresh from the forest. Poor things! They have only a limited lifespan inside this enclosure and were destined to die here.

Next, we went to YG Nursery but I wasn't particularly thrilled although there were a few humongous plants that I like because of their sheer sizes.

The trip down Cameron Highlands was terrible. Whilst we didn't feel much on the way up, we all sort of lost our appetites when we reached a pitstop for lunch at Kuala Lumpur. I guess it was because the driver drove very fast and we were all sicked from the views that passed us by so rapidly.

When we reached FRIM, it was around 3 pm. We were shown around Razak Walk and on the way back to the university grounds, I was attacked by a leech! The leech only attacked me and no one else, damned! That was about the most exciting thing that happened to me on the second day. At first, I panicked and tried to get it off using a lighter from a colleague. But I was afraid of burning myself, so I tried using the medicated oil from another colleague.

Thank goodness it finally came off! But the handiplast that was pasted was completely bloodied after a short while. Fortunately, the wound was small and the bleeding finally stopped after a while of pressing a tissue against it. I still have the dried tissue to show for it.

We then made our way to Hotel Capitol near Sungei Wang where we stayed for the night. When we went for dinner at , it was pouring and as such, I didn't have much time shopping and only bought a shirt in the end.

That was all for the day!