French Film Festival 2006

Although it was a particularly hectic week for me, I managed to catch 2 films during the recent French Film Festival.

The first was Joyeux Noel (2005) [Merry Christmas] which I saw on the opening day. It was an incredible film about love and humanity which moved me to tears a few times within that one and a half hour. I was so inspired by the film that I briefly toyed with naming one of my future issues "Paix" to stand for peace, haha, seriously... but "Zerpaix" does sound a tad weird, I guess...

The other film watched was entitled "Cash Truck" which was so violent that it's really not worth mentioning at all. A few friends and I were supposed to watch something called Saint-Ange but the GSC at Gurney Plaza changed the schedule so many times that we ended up watching this nonsense which was, in my opinion, a sheer waste of time.

Well, one wins some and loses some, I guess....

Was hoping to watch "The Beat That My Heart Skipped" and "Viper In The Fist" but didn't manage to find the time unfortunately. A friend highly recommended the latter, but alas, as I was saying earlier, "so many things to do, and so little time"...

Walter Niemann (1876 - 1953)

One sometimes comes across a discovery which really moves one to the core. It happened to me recently when I was invited to a concert organised by the German Embassy held at E&O Hotel. The concert principally was to honour the late German poet Hermann Hesse, with Cord Barben on Piano and Silja Schindler, Soprano, playing and singing piano music and songs based on the late poet's lyrics.

I was struck dumb when Cord Barben recited a poem to the accompaniment of a few pieces of music composed by one Walter Niemann, who was in my opinion Rachmaninoff, Listz, Chopin and Debussy all combined into one.

Oh! What lovely pieces he composed. I must look for his Juninacht; Praludium, Arietta and In moto perpetuo.

Books, Again...

Hubby bought me some books from MPH KL. Unfortunately, I've already got one of them; Nobel Winner Gao Xingjian's Soul Mountain which I read halfway a few months ago. The other two are non-fiction Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point and Robin Sharma's The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari. Hmmm.. not the sort of books I would normally buy for myself but will definitely give them a chance one of these days.... which goes to remind me of 2 other books which were bought not by myself personally but by Kitty a few months ago for me from the MPH warehouse sale. I was initially a little sceptical as to whether I'd like them but both turned out to be pleasant surprises. Jane Adams's Angel Gateway was a haunting tale of 2 separate lives, separated by centuries but bonded by events. I actually enjoyed reading the book so much that I finished it within a day. Tiffanie DeBartolo's The Shape Of My Heart, on the other hand, was a romantic and poignant tale about a woman who found her soul-mate, only to lose him at the end to a tragic fatal drowning incident. The book was consumed within 2 days.

And I must confess, I spoiled myself last week by buying 6 new books. Am currently reading Stephen Clarke's Merde Actually (sequel to A Year In The Merde) which is truly hilarious. He writes stuffs like " .... The train regional, a tiny TGV was so new that people would get on and say "Oh, pardon" because they thought they were in first class...."

The other 5 are Amy Tan's Saving Fish from Drowning, Umberto Eco's The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, Alexander McCall Smith's Friends, Lovers, Chocolate, Elfriede Jelinek's The Piano Teacher and Julian Barnes's The Lemon Table.

Books I am currently also reading include Oscar Hijuelo's The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love and Katherine Mansfield's The Garden Party and Other Stories.

Books read include Arthur Miller's Death Of a Salesman, gift from a friend.

Sigh... so many books to read, so little time.....

Eric Carle

Zerlynde loves her Eric Carle books. I started her off with The Hungry Caterpillar and Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? when she was hardly even one. She learned the names of the various animals from the latter; bear, bird, duck, horse, frog, cat, dog, sheep and fish. Then, we progressed to Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? where she picked up the animal names lion, zebra, snake, elephant and peacock. Lately, she seems to be enjoying The Hungry Caterpillar a lot, I think mainly because she's learned to identify her favourite food in the book; lollilop, ice-cream, cake and muffin, also the various fruits mentioned; apple, orange, pear and strawberry. She loves the word strawberry and repeatedly utter the word whenever she sees its pictures.

Oh! And she's so very intrique with the The Very Quiet Cricket which contains a computer chip on the last page which produces a very realistic chirping sound whenever we turn to that page. We teases her a lot by frequently turning to that page and she'll react by pretending to be really scared.

Lately, I'm starting her on the picture book Do You Want To Be My Friend. This book is a bit more complex in my opinion but she seems to like looking at the illustration of the long long snake and will go "Eeek, snake" everytime I turn to the relevant pages.


The Very Hungry Caterpillar, 1969
This all-time favorite not only follows the very hungry caterpillar as it grows from egg to cocoon to beautiful butterfly, but also teaches the days of the week, counting, good nutrition and more. Striking pictures and cleverly die-cut pages offer interactive fun.
With its lovely, humorous illustrations and wonderful narrative about a hungry caterpillar growing up to be a beautiful butterfly, Eric Carle's story touches anyone who still has some growing to do. Along with reassuring repetition--"He was still hungry ..."--the book includes some wonderful interactive moments: what youngster can resist sticking a finger through that hole in the page as his ravenous friend makes his way through various delicacies?


Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? written by Bill Martin Jr, 1967
Appealing animals in bold colors are seen and named in a rhyming question-and-response text that delights as it invites young readers and listeners to participate actively.
The gentle rhyming and gorgeous, tissue-paper collage illustrations in this classic picture book make it a dog-eared favorite on many children's bookshelves. On each page, we meet a new animal who nudges us onward to discover which creature will show up next: "Blue Horse, Blue Horse, What do you see? I see a green frog looking at me." This pattern is repeated over and over, until the pre-reader can chime in with the reader, easily predicting the next rhyme. One thing readers might not predict, however, is just what kinds of funny characters will make an appearance at the denouement! Children on the verge of reading learn best with plenty of identifiable images and rhythmic repetition.


Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? written by Bill Martin Jr, 1991
Easy, repetitive question-and-response text draws children into joyful interaction as they imitate the sounds of a variety of zoo animals for the zookeeper. Big, bold animal illustrations and lots of noisy fun.
It's been 25 years since these two talented men put their heads together, but the fruit of their latest collaboration is well worth the wait. Continuing in the spirit of Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? , their new book incorporates the same clean design and crisp text, but this time the action takes place at the zoo, where elephants, hippos, lions and such are asked what they hear--each answer leads to the animal on the next page, and culminates with a zookeeper who "hears" a pageful of multiracial children disguised as their favorite animals. Carle's characteristically inventive, jewel-toned artwork forms a seamless succession of images that fairly leap off the pages, and educator Martin, ever tuned in to what children like best, has assembled a thoroughly rowdy menagerie--including a fluting flamingo, bellowing walrus and hissing boa constrictor, to name a few--imitations of whose sounds will doubtless soon be echoing in many homes and classrooms. A visually and aurally splashy work, this is a splendid successor to Brown Bear , one that no fan of that popular bruin will want to be without. Ages 2-4.


The Very Quiet Cricket, 1990
The surprise ending of this enormously popular book features a chip that perfectly reproduces the real sound of a cricket’s song. In the story, a young cricket longs to make a sound by rubbing his wings together as many other crickets do. How he finally gets his wish is a romantic tale as well as a first look at natural history for the very young.
A cricket is born who cannot talk! A bigger cricket welcomes him to the world, then a locust, a cicada, and many other insects, but each time the tiny cricket rubs his wings together in vain: no sound emerges. In the end, however, he meets another quiet cricket, and manages to find his "voice." Children will love the repetitive text as they meet a steady parade of new creatures (including a "spittlebug, slurping in a sea of froth"); and of course they'll delight in the happy ending. This is one of a series of large (11.5 by 8.5 inches) format Eric Carle books with a mechanical twist: in this case, the quiet cricket bursts into (surprisingly authentic) electronic song as you turn the last page. (The battery is replaceable.) An amusement for the ears, but most of all--as ever, with Carle--a feast for the eyes. The colorful cut-paper illustrations are simply gorgeous, drawing you in even on the hundredth reading.


Do You Want to Be My Friend?, 1971
In few words but expressive pictures, a little mouse looks for a friend - and happily finds one just in time to save himself from a predator who has been hiding there all the time - unseen, but in plain sight! A simple story on the universal theme of friendship.
Do you want to be my friend? asks the little mouse, and hopefully follows a tail, finding at the end of it a rather unfriendly horse. But there's another tail, and another, and a strange, long, green one, too, that follows the mouse on his quest for a friend.Each page of this ingenious picture book contains a surprise. Its only text is on the first page, but the exciting pursuit of a friend for the little mouse lends itself to improvisation by both the reader and the young child

Click HERE to go to The Official Eric Carle Web Site and HERE to go to The Eric Carle Musuem of Picture Book Art

Zerlynde's Latest Obsession

It all started with the above first animation I received in an attachment from Kitty. One evening about 2 weeks ago when Zerlynde was being particularly difficult, I decided to show her the animation (playing to the music Can't Take My Eyes Off You and Dancing Queen) in an attempt to calm her down. That worked. She was totally mesmerised by the animation and was kept in place for more than 20 minutes, afterwhich I managed to lull her to go to sleep when she was finally totally satisfied and exhausted.

After that first night, she's begun to ask for "dancing, dancing" pointing to my laptop each time before she went to sleep. I obediently obliged everytime to keep her happy. She soon grew smarter and ordered me to scroll up and down to show her the rest of the animated cliparts in the attachment. There were a few others, two of which she particularly enjoyed, the smiley face and Snoopy as posted below.





Then, she grew even more demanding, wanting this and that. I finally decided to spend a couple of hours a few nights ago to download about 250 animated cliparts to meet her demands. She would decide she wanted Elmo, then ice-cream, then lollipop, then dancing, then back to Elmo, then Humpty-Dumpty, then out of the blue, cried out for duck, or Barney, or Maisy, or BJ, I had no choice but to search through another 10 sites to download another 250 cliparts in anticipation of her whims and fancy. (and also admitedly because I personally couldn't resist adding the cute animation to my collection...)

These are some of her favourites animation...





















I've only found a very tiny animated Barney clipart so far, so looks like my search will have to continue...

Our Weekend at Lone Pine

Kenzu's sister Kenzy was back from London for 3 weeks, so we took the opportunity to spend the weekend with her at Lone Pine. It was raining on and off the whole of Saturday and Sunday; fortunately we managed to catch a little bit of sea, sun and sand somehow.


Lunch at Hot Wok on Saturday


Peng dropped by for a visit bringing Zerlynde a little turtle (which Zerlynde seems to think is a frog)


Zerlynde went for a stroll with her baby doll after the drizzle had stopped


Zerlynde refused to step on the grass so grandpa had to carry her


Zerlynde is happiest being with her favourite persons


Urbanised Zerlynde afraid of the sand...


...and the sea


Lone Pine has one of the most beautiful garden...


...and the most extraordinary scenery


Zerlynde all dressed up for dinner at Happy Garden just 5 minutes drive away. The springroll and kapitan prawns were absolutely delicious.


Enjoying fried "tang-hung" for breakfast


Zerlynde upset after being "forced" to go into the pool with daddy


"Am I sexy or am I sexy?"



Marcus and Carol dropped by for a visit. Zerlynde loves singing the Birthday song, so we gathered around her to sing the song for her amusement. She even got to blow the candle...


Dinner at The Bungalow to celebrate Father's Day


Zerlynde was so fascinated by the 3-piece band so I brought her to experiment with the congo


Sunday evening, we invited some friends to drop by for a drink. World Cup was on, and daddy taught Zerlynde some tricks. Our guests were later kept entertained by her dancing and acting to the songs "Head, Shoulder, Knees and Toes", "If You're Happy and You Know it", "Itsy Bitsy Spider", "The Wheels on the Bus", etc. She was unusually and surprisingly a good sport that night...


Zerlynde deciding that she didn't like the taste of orchids


Reluctant to leave... Bye-bye...

Zerlynde at 22 months

Our Sunday of Bubbles, Durian, Drum and Books...




Despite her initial apprehension, Zerlynde grew to enjoy catching the bubbles, saying "bubble pop"


It's our first durian of the season. Hubby managed to buy us our favourite D24


Zerlynde loves banging on the drum


Daddy bought 3 lovely books with flaps, taps, texture, wheels and pop-up surprises for Zerlynde but they are so fragile that she ripped the spider off from one of the books almost immediately after she's got hold of it...

Serbia or Holland?

Hubby has gone mad with football fever. He spent half an hour this evening asking Zerlynde "Serbia or Holland??" Zerlynde refused to give her daddy any tip and kept her lips sealed. Apparently she was asked a select a team a few months ago which resulted in daddy and his friends reaping a huge windfall. So, daddy's pushing his luck again...

Zerlynde expressing herself...

It's the weekend again. I decided to carve some potatoes for Zerlynde to print.





The stars and flowers are hardly visible as Zerlynde chose to express herself in her personal style. Daddy's very pleased that his baby is displaying early signs of a fiery passion...

Princess-Model

Behind the Scene...