HOUSE PLANTS

This was taken more than a month ago and the Brugmansia is still flowering till today. It is one of my favourite moments everyday to walk past this wonderful shrub to catch a whiff of its fragrance and admire the pink trumpets. If only I can have more of these plants around. Sadly, my recent attempts to propagate it with cuttings failed miserably.

In this photo is also the Pelargonium I bought and I will post about it sometime soon. 

TED

This was the next comedy that I watched. A movie with a soft toy usually appeals to a lot of people but not to me. Alright, I am starting to sound like a drone going on and on about the same thing.

I am not sure if I should classify this as an adult fairy tale? Starring Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis, it is a story about a boy who had no friends and made a wish on Christmas Eve to have a teddy bear that would be friends with him for life. His wish was somehow granted and the teddy bear, hence the name Ted, grew up with him into his adult years. They remained inseparable to the extent that it affected his relationship with a girl.

To me, the pot-smoking and womanizing teddy bear was hardly appealing. It was vulgar instead. Having said that, I was definitely more entertained by this movie than the previous one. 

The only truly funny moment for me was the few seconds cameo by Ryan Reynolds, in two scenes, who put up an amazing performance as one half of a gay couple. This man has real comic timing, as evident by the few comedies I watched with him in it. His early days in a TV comedic sitcom must have helped him tremendously.

VULGARIA

This is another movie I wouldn't watched on my own. Starring Chapman To and Ronald Cheng, it left me almost in tears, not because it was a sad movie but rather because it was so lame.

Loosely based on Chapman's experience before he became an actor, it did very well at Hong Kong's box office but it did not go down well with me. I am not the high class arty farty type but I am not entertained by this movie either. In my humble opinion, I found it to be damned stupid. No wonder the Hong Kong movie industry is going to doldrums, especially with such poor taste productions.

HOPE SPRINGS

Never in my world would I dream of watching this movie but watch I did. I mean, why would I want to watch the elderly have sex right?

I don't mean to be discriminatory or disrespectful towards the elderly. It's analogous to why I don't really like to watch some kiddy shows because I didn't think I could relate to the storyline.

Starring Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones and Steve Carell, it relates the story of Kay who after being married for thirty odd years and whose two children were no longer living with them, found herself leading a lonely sexless life despite having a husband under the same roof. They were sleeping in separate rooms and Arnold had not touched her physically for almost four years. In fact, she could remember the date and details of the event vividly. Their daily lives revolved around a regimental routine that never changed for years. The sad and unfulfilled housewife was so tormented by the lack of physical and mental intimacy in her marriage that she could bear it no longer.

One fine day, she threatened her husband to go for a week long intensive marriage counselling with Dr Feld at a coastal resort town. Reluctantly, Arnold tagged along but things did not turn out well. They tried to rekindle the sparks in their marriage and were forced to act beyond their comfort zones in terms of physical intimacy, especially for Kay who went all out to do what she felt was necessary to salvage her marriage. Although there was some slight progress, the retreat did not yield the satisfactory outcome yearned by Kay. The week was soon over and they had to return to their usual mundane lives.

When everything resumed back to what it was before the trip, that was the last straw for her. She finally wanted to throw in the towel and end her marriage. In her own words, she said she would rather be alone without anyone than to be with someone and yet feel lonely. Did the marriage end with a sad or happy note for the couple? I will not give the ending away for this case.

Meryl Streep was competent and funny in her role as the prim and proper Kay. In fact, it was kind of awkward to see her touched Tommy Lee Jones with trembling hands, went down to give him a blowjob at the cinema and masturbated herself in her room. Maybe I am too uptight myself. 

Anyway, if the producers combine the movies "The Devil Wears Prada" and "Hope Springs" together and portray Meryl Streep as the mega-bitch career woman who returns home as a helpless emancipated woman in an unhappy sexless marriage, I think that would be most brilliant and totally makes sense. It would explain why her unhappy personal life translates into a sadistic boss at work.

BIRD'S NEST FUNGI

I have not seen the bird's nest fungi (Family: Nidulariaceae) for sometime now, so naturally I was delighted to find this small patch on the floor of the garden. These tiny art pieces of nature often go unnoticed because of their small sizes and their similar colour to the decomposing wood chips.

WEED

The plant on the bottom right corner of the photo looked interesting and added to the texture of the landscape. Too bad it was a weed, so it had to be removed.

FRUITS AND FLOWERS (PORTLANDIA)

This is one interesting shrub that I do not know of. The bell-shaped flowers have a unique enclosed bud with a purplish tip that opens up to release a light scented fragrance.

NB on 25 May 13: This plant is known as Portlandia grandiflora (Common Name: Bell Flower, Glorious Flower of Cuba, Tree Lily; Family: Rubiaceae).

NEIGHBOUR'S PLANTS

Alright, this is the second post on the same subject. But I am posting this because I took these photos using my camera and felt the owner's beautiful Bougainvillea and Periwinkle plants deserved better publicity.

1 MILLIONTH

GB finally welcomed its milllionth visitor on one of those weekends  in the past month. Hurray!                                                                                            

ONCIDIUM

This Oncidium was flowering again on the green wall. Interesting?

WOODPECKER

The zoom was out of focus in these photos but it was a woodpecker alright!

STERCULIA

The day after National Day, I was greeted by another sort of fireworks. I walked along the bridge connecting the Malay Garden and Colonial Garden and was pleasantly surprised to find a tree in the Supertree Grove covered with reddish pink fireworks.

My eyesight isn't very good but with the help of my Nikon camera, I managed to take these photos for record. That is the advantage of having a powerful mega-zoom camera because it becomes a pair of binoculars for me. Without which, I would not be able to keep track of the flowering seasons of plants.