Ah here we go

This blog was a long time in the making, mostly due to this blogger's innate laziness. As always, anything I actually start is usually at the expense of something else I should have been doing but absolutely didn't feel like doing at that point in time. So since I was supposed to be doing work that I had brought home, I started a blog instead.

Today was as good a day to start this blog as any, if not better than most. This is something I've been meaning to do since I don't know when, mostly to capture what I enjoy most in life. Today I gave up the fight with work and ended up doing three of my favourite things. Was it a good day? You bet. I was so relaxed I actually volunteered to iron all the backlog of laundry. HM (housemate) said she hadn't seen me like this since the last school holiday in June.

So what put me in such a good mood? I had a scrumptious meal at a fine dining restaurant, I re-read one of my all-time favourite books, I watched a good movie.

Lunch was at Les Saisons. It being my first time there, we did the set lunch. My theory is that, if a restaurant can feed you well on a limited budget, you can expect even better with the ala carte menu and the specials. I had the foie gras starter, the braised beef cheek main course, the caramelised banana dessert and coffee. HM had the carrot and coriander soup, the grilled cod entree and a chocolate fondant dessert. Both the foie gras and the beef were excellent - melt-in-your-mouth-tender - but the cod won. It was flaky and fluffy and ever-so-delicately seasoned. Yummy. The service was good (attentive without being irritating). My verdict: Not yet michelin star quality but excellent value for money - very competent cooking at affordable prices ($118 for two, inclusive of taxes). Well worth a return visit.

Watered and fed, I lazed around, and re-read "To Kill a Mockingbird". I've been doing this once a year, sometimes twice, ever since I was in Secondary Two when we did the book for Lit class. I think it was the first book I read where the breadth and depth of the issues provided such ballast to the personal. Very shiok reading. And I always thought Atticus was the coolest dad (hey, so I'm a nerd).

Then the movie. Ok, I admit I downloaded and watched "21 Grams" for the shallowest of reasons. I had wanted to watch it when it played on the cinema circuit last year but as usual managed to miss it under the onslaught of work. Quite forgot about it until I started my Clea DuVall obsession last week. That *eyes rolling* started when I watched "But I'm a Cheerleader" again. Hey, love that scowl and those cheekbones. Wish HBO Asia would bring in "Carnivale". Oh well. I'm just going to download the first season for now.

Clea's only got a bit part in this one, but the movie turned out to be pretty good anyway. I won't go into the details of the plot here (you can check out http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0315733/). I thought the acting was very good - Naomi Watts in particular. Sean Penn's character I didn't quite understand, i.e. where he was coming from. I know there is some debate about the effectiveness of the cut and paste narrative structure (or lack thereof), but it kept me involved, which was quite necessary 'cos the film was so overwhelmingly depressing that it would have been tempting to switch off. In that sense, it reminded me of "Traffic". Anyway, it left me shaken, especially the "freak" accident where Naomi Watts' husband and family were wiped out. Called HM just to tell her to be careful on the streets (how lame, I know).

Now it's back to school. I'm looking forward to next week- school holidays! There are exam scripts to mark, bosses to meet, but the rest of the time is mine :) Here's to a week with Clea, yea!