Fun Nights!
Wow… its raining cats, dogs and cows out there this afternoon… The sound of thunder and raindrops pounding on my office window kinda puts me in the mood to write, so I guess it’s prolly the best time to tell u bout the last 2 fun nights I’ve had…
Last Tuesday night, my hubby’s friends invited us to join them for a movie… And them being former media arts students in MMU, I guess I’m not surprised that these successful career men actually invited us to watch an animation feature, Ratatouille (Rat-a-too-ee). After all, it was a Pixar movie. I couldn’t help but feel excited to see what Pixar’s latest masterpiece would be like. Plus, the story’s set in the heart of Paris, one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and one of my favourites.. hehe.
[OK this is the point for movie-spoiler-haters to stop reading.. *wink*]
So basically the story revolves around a rat named Remy in France. Now this rat isn’t ur average rat, it has a weird fascination and talent for gourmet food and the culinary arts. This doesn’t sit well with his family of garbage-eating rodents, and he quickly became an outcast. But that doesn’t stop Remy from idolizing the best chef in all of France, Gusteau. One day, in a bizarre turn of events, Remy ended up separated from his clan and ended up in — you guessed it — Gusteau’s own infamous restaurant’s sewer system.
Realizing his dreams were coming true, Remy sneaked into Gusteau’s kitchen. Everything there dazzled him. He then got caught while he was trying to fix a soup that a timid new garbage boy, Linguini, had accidentally ruined and was sent off to be killed. However, Linguini realized that this rat can cook and HE can’t, so to ensure his job at Gusteau’s, they became allies and formed a plan to survive in the Gusteau kitchen. After a lot of hilarious mishaps and near-disasters, Linguini (and Remy) quickly became famous for their new recipes, much to the chagrin of Chef Skinner, the chef in charge at Gusteau’s.
The ultimate test came when the most feared and revered food critic in all of Paris decided to put Linguini’s food to the test. Despite Skinner’s sabotages and the rest of Gusteau’s kitchen crew walking away at the last minute, Remy and Linguini managed to get rave reviews when they served ‘Ratatouille’ to the critic, with the help of Remy’s long lost rodent friends. Remy and Linguini became the best of friends and finally became famous in their own right, without the shadow of Gusteau’s former glory.
What I loved about this movie: The beautiful artwork of Paris city and the expressive expressions on each and every rodent and human character. The storyline was superb, the funnies made me laugh till my belly ached, the character and hair animation was top notch, the morale was there, and the food made me wanna go to Paris and dine my lil heart out! It was close to perfect — it had adventure, humour, romance and action — but unfortunately, the main characters’ French accents leaves much to be desired. I guess the movie makers wanted the main dialogue to be easily understood, but it somehow takes away a tad of the movie’s ‘frenchness’. That said, Ratatouille is probably one of my favourites from Pixar, and it’s main moral – “Everyone can cook” teaches us that you cannot let what others’ perception of you deter you from achieving your dreams and being what you want to be. Even the little angel in my belly liked the movie coz he/she was busy doing backflips the whole time.. hehehe 
[Movie-spoiler-haters can continue reading beyond this point... ahaks!]
Last night, my hubby took me to see the fireworks competition in Putrajaya. We met up with a couple of my hubby’s friends, most of them photographers, and joined the heavy stream of cars headed for Putrajaya. But instead of watching it at the actual competition site per se, we found ourselves a lovely spot by the lake in front of the Sri Putri school.
Despite the fact that we had to park illegally by the roadside with hundreds of other people, trudge down the slope by the road towards the lake and squeeze through the never-ending hedges by the lake, the view and ambience of our selected spot was absolutely perfect. Sure, it’s far away from the main arena, and my bum ached from sitting on the hard ground, but we got a great view of the lake, the brightly lit bridges, the soft night breeze, and most importantly, a full view of the fireworks amidst the Putrajaya skyline. Definitely worth roughing it out, even with my round belly. I only wished we were abit more prepared, u know, like bringing a picnic mat, some food or even a little cushion for my aching bum and back. At least it would help ease the aches and pains abit… huhu.
Anywayz, the bunch of us got to enjoy about 20 minutes’ worth of fantastic fireworks. And I really mean fantastic! I’ve been to KLCC and such to watch fireworks during Merdeka and New Years, but this definitely takes the cake. The fireworks looked like gorgeous blooming flowers, rockets shooting to the sky and even like fishes jumping into the water… certainly not the average display u see during New Years! To those who haven’t had the chance to go yet, make the time to do so! Don’t miss this once in a lifetime opportunity to witness the excitement with your friends and family… I know my hubby and I got some good photos… InsyaAllah, if I have time (and if I get the photos from my hubby) I’ll post em up in my site… So till then… ciao peeps!
