Juan Or at the Premier Screening of The Adventures of Tintin in Secret of the Unicorn

Thanks to Nuffnang and United International Pictures Malaysia, Mommy won a pair of passes to watch the premier screening of The Adventures of Tintin in 3D on 2nd November 2011, 9.30 pm at Golden Screen Cinema Midvalley Megamall!

Papa, Juan Or and Mommy reached Midvalley pretty 'early', i.e., at about 6.10 pm because that's about the best time to look for parking since Midvalley office workers are most likely to be driving out by then. Since the show would only start from 9.30 pm, we had a lot of time to kill in Midvalley......


Juan Or got to have his static ride on his favourite Thomas the Tank Engine and the Troublesome Truck!

We went to see Transformers toys too at several toy figurine-specialized shops (Anime Tech, Comic Mart) at Megamall's top floor, but didn't buy anything as their prices are not competitive. We went to Toys R'Us to see too but there were not many varieties left.

Finally, by 8.15 pm, we headed for GSC to collect the passes. Well, there was already a long queue of Nuffnangers even though there was no sign yet of Nuffnang staff nor a Nuffnang counter. And guess who we met there? It's none other than Juan Juan and her mum from My Little Sprouts! By the way, Mommy met Isaac Tan from eXperiences too (via introduction from Juan Juan's mum).

It wasn't too long after queuing that Mommy got the passes plus two "I (heart) Nuffnang" badges. Juan Or was very eager to wear the badge and even insisted that Mommy should wear too!

By around 9.15 pm, we were allowed to be seated in the screening hall and the 3D glasses were distributed upon entering the hall. Juan Or treated the glasses more like a toy - wore it and made funny faces!

Since only two glasses were distributed (but there were three of us), Mommy made it a point to stand by with a pair of cardboard 3D glasses taken from Juan Or's 3D book of dinosaurs. Mommy wasn't exactly sure whether such cardboard 3D glasses are compatible for warching such 3D movies, but no harm trying, right? Anyway, the cardboard 3D glasses were meant for Juan Or to use whereas the proper 3D glasses were for both Papa and Mommy to use! ^_^

Finally, the show started and guess what? Juan Or refused to give Mommy back the proper 3D glasses! He insisted on using the proper one and that Mommy should use the dinosaur one! *Faint* Mommy made several futile attempts to coax him into giving Mommy the proper glasses with each attempt ending with Juan Or making faint crying sound. *Cunning boy!* So what to do? Mommy used the dinosaur one while he used the proper one! On several occasions, Mommy caught him watching with the proper glasses being lifted up to his forehead (in other words, he was watching without the glasses!), so Mommy insisted that he give it back for Mommy to use. Guess what was his reply? With an almost crying voice and pleading tone, Juan Or said," Cannot see without glasses!" *Double faint*


So at the end of the day, Mommy watched 3D Tintin without any 3D glasses for about 90% of the time, 5% with the proper glasses on and the remaining time with the dinosaur glasses on. Without any 3D glasses, the subtitles are of course double image, but the pictures are not too double image - still a manageable view, though. With the dinosaur glasses on, the subtitles still look double image, but the pictures are a little better off. And of course with the proper glasses on, the 3D-ness is very good! The only downside to Mommy about wearing the proper 3D glasses is that it adds extra weight onto the short-sighted glasses that Mommy is already wearing, thus giving a heavy and uncomfortable feeling or pressure on the nose bridge. Looks like watching 3D is definitely not for Mommy, but for Papa, the 3D experience was heavenly (he didn't seem to experience the heavy-nose-bridge symptom)! 

How about the Tintin movie? Well, it was an enjoyable show despite some tug-of-war-of-glasses inconvenience  with Juan Or and some brief sleepy spells due to tiredness from work plus the tensed waiting period (before the show started). Personally, Mommy felt it could have been better for the producers to have a non-3D version as well to cater to different needs of their viewers. Here's a trailer of the show:

Gnomeo and Juliet

Imagine when you - the master of the house - are gone and all of a sudden, your garden deco figurines come alive and have lives and adventures of their own? Well, this is certainly what happens in Gnomeo and Juliet!

Gnomeo and Juliet (read in the mind as "Romeo and Juliet") is an adaptation of Shakespeare's well-known work which revolves around the forbidden love between a man and a woman who come from two feuding families. Of course Shakespeare's version deals with real human whereas Gnomeo and Juliet deals with ceramic-made garden deco gnomes that come alive when their masters are not around (doesn't this coming-alive thing resemble Toy Story?). As you can expect, the two neighbouring masters do not get along well with each other, so do their teams of ceramic garden gnomes. See their hilarious antics - the blue-clothed gnomes vs. the red-clothed gnomes - in showing their hostility towards each other. Then one day, Juliet from the red-clothed gnome family wanted to pick a special flower situated at the blue-clothed gnome's garden and that was how she stumbled upon Gnomeo and love-at-first-sight sparked between them although they didn't quite want to admit the attraction  initially. See the two lovebirds' hilarious antics on how they struggled to come to terms with their attraction (and love) for each other and how they 'fought' for their love knowing very well that their families are at loggerheads. The good thing about this show is that it's a happy ending for everyone unlike Shakespeare's whereby the lovebirds ended up dead (*touchwood!*). Not just that, the gnome Juliet is also an articulate, strong-willed and hardy (or rather tomboyish) girl who can jump, kick, fight, and drive the lawn mower just like a male gnome unlike Shakespeare's portrayal of a very feminine and submissive Juliet. Watch this Gnomeo and Juliet and you won't be disappointed!


Anyway, just recently, Papa bought this Gnomeo and Juliet DVD and thanks to its entertaining and interesting storyline and lively computer graphics being catchy enough to sustain Juan Or's interest, Mommy was able to finish watching it (otherwise how would Mommy be able to write about it?)! What are you waiting for? Go get Gnomeo and Juliet DVD now!

Here's the official trailer if you prefer getting your foot into it first before getting hold of it with your hands!

A Night's Out Without Juan Or

Remember how Mommy joined the Nuffnang's District 9 Contest for Glitterati members? Well, Mommy won a pair of District 9's Premiere Screening movie tickets! So, on 12th August 2009 (i.e., on the day Juan Or turned exactly 1 year 3 months old), after coming back from work, took bath and ate dinner, and of course saying goodbye to Juan Or (Juan Or was cool about it, surprisingly!), Papa and Mommy headed to Cathay Cineplex Damansara (formerly Cineleisure, Kota Damansara) at about 6.45 pm (the show started at 9 pm), hoping to be able to beat the traffic jam to reach there in time. So Mommy did the driving because Papa cannot stand driving in traffic jams. However, the surprising thing was the roads were all smooth and clear - no traffic jams at all! So Mommy thought this must be the sign that the day was meant to be that both Papa and Mommy get to watch a movie! What's more, Mommy won this pair of tickets out of 60 pairs of tickets out for grabs and there were 256 blogger participants vying for it!

By almost 7.40 pm, Papa and Mommy reached Cathay Cineplex Damansara and immediately headed to the cinema's lobby to collect the free movie tickets. Nuffnang had informed Mommy that the Nuffnang booth would only start giving out the free tickets from 8.00 to 8.45 pm. So, turned out, Mommy was the first Nuffanger in line. After getting the tickets, Papa and Mommy walked to Ikano Power Centre to browse some shops there and by almost 9 pm, we were back at the cinema's lobby. Then Mommy noticed that apparently the movie ticket stated that the show would only start at 9.30 pm, so Papa and Mommy decided to just hang around the vicinity because 30 minutes was definitely insufficient time to browse some more shops. The waiting time was very boring and noisy as well because there was an indoor dodgeball match going on. At one stage, Mommy noticed Papa's eyes almost closed. Then when Papa woke up again, Papa reminded Mommy not to join this kind of contest anymore as we do not have the kind of energy and alertness to rush to a shopping complex after work and stay up late to watch a movie. Hahaha....we are no longer in our twenties anymore!

Finally, we were allowed to enter the movie hall and shortly after the movie started. The initial part of the movie was rather boring - there were certain moments when Mommy accidentally dozed off and woke up, and dozed off and woke up again until when the moview almost reached the middle, then did things and action start to pick up. That was when Papa and Mommy, no matter how tired, couldn't help staying alert and awake to watch it because the movie became exciting and action-packed. In a nutshell, District 9 is about a district where aliens, who are stranded on Earth, are designated to stay. Later on, the government assigned a young man to execute the relocation of the aliens. During the process of relocation, the young man was spurt with some alien liquid and as a result, some DNA transformation happened, causing him to gradually turn into an alien. During the time when he was still half human and half alien, the government actually used him as experimental subject to operate and research on alien weapons (the government was already secretly using aliens as experimental subjects then, which cost the lives of many aliens.). He was against such deeds, so he escaped as the government hunted him down. So he seeked solace and shelter in District 9, where he 'befriended' an alien who happened to be one of those intelligent and master mind type of alien. So he made a deal with the alien that he will help the alien to go back to their place of origin and the alien in turn must heal him completely to become a human again. But before the alien could go back and heal him, he must get back the canister of liquid (that spilt on him, rememeber?) which is now in the government's keeping. Finally, he got the canister of liquid and after some scuffle with government soldiers, the alien managed to get into his spaceship to go back home (together with the alien baby), while he stayed behind to use the alien weapons to fight back the government soldiers. And the alien promised to come back to Earth to change him back into a human again (is the producer hinting that they are going to come out with a sequel to this movie?). By the time the show ended, the man had already fully turned into a full-fledged alien.

Although Mommy enjoyed watching the movie, but during the course of the movie, Mommy can't help thinking about Juan Or. Some questions kept running in Mommy's mind: Is Juan Or happily playing with his Grandparents and Second Uncle? Is Juan Or sleeping already? Is Juan Or OK with Papa and Mommy going out without him at night? Anyway, by the time, we reached home, it was already 11.30 pm and Juan Or was already sleeping soundly in the spring cot. Mommy asked Father-in-law how was Juan Or when we were not in and Father-in-law's reply was that Juan Or was happily playing all the way until it was time to sleep. Mommy heaved a sigh of relief.

By the way, Mommy didn't capture any photos during the movie outing because the day before, Mommy's Motorola handphone went short-circuit due to leaking battery. So the handphone is spoilt already and is now a play item for Juan Or. Mind you, Mommy only bought the handphone some one-and-a-half years ago for RM499! What a waste! What to do! Tonight, Mommy is buying a new handphone so that Mommy can continue to capture Juan Or's candid moments and put them up in this blog.

Pre-Premiere Screening of "District 9": A Possible Chance for a Romantic Night for Two?

Mommy stumbled upon the "District 9" advertisement of Nuffnang from a fellow mummy's blog. Clicking on the ad led Mommy to Nuffnang's blog about the premiere screening of "District 9" on 13th August 2009. In the Nuffnang blog post, it was mentioned that Nuffnang Glitterati bloggers (hehehe...Mommy is!) can stand a chance to win a pair (note this word - meaning you can take your spouse with you!) of District 9 movie tickets before the premiere screening (i.e., on 12th August 2009, 9 pm, at the Cathay Cineplex Damansara) by merely leaving a slogan at the comments section. One can stand an even better chance if one blogs about it!

By the way, if you haven't known what "District 9" is all about, then check out the movie's synopsis in Nuffnang's blog and this trailer:






So Mommy thought why not Mommy make a try for it. After all, it has already been ages since Papa and Mommy last go to the cinema to watch a movie - more so after Juan Or was born. Of course, at Juan Or's age of 1 year 2+ months old, it is still not possible to bring Juan Or along to the cinema because he won't be able to withstand sitting still on the cinema's cushioned chair 'watching' a movie for about 2 hours! Mommy can imagine Juan Or fretting and crying all the way even right before the movie starts!

Another alternative if Papa and Mommy really, really want to go for a movie is by taking leave from work so that Papa and Mommy can watch movie in peace while Juan Or is at the babysitter's place. However, this option is not possible now because Papa has just joined a new company, so is not allowed to take leave during the probation period.

But then to spend money to purposely buy movie tickets to watch after office hours while Juan Or is being cared for by Grandma is not a worthwhile option because both Papa and Mommy are tired out after all in a day's work, plus having to rush to the cinema after coming back home, take bath and eat dinner. But if the movie tickets are given out free, then it's worth considering to rush to the cinema after coming back from work! Hehehehe!

By the way, if Mommy gets to win this, it will be good for some humble romantic enjoyment with Papa before Mommy's paper-marking exodus begins on 14th August! Why is that? Because the final exam papers of the subject that Mommy lectures on will only be in on that date. So Mommy will have to bring final exam papers home to mark. And mind you, there's 100+ of exam papers to mark!

Putting Juan Or into Personalized Baby Movies

Mommy checked her Yahoo Mail today and found a mail from www.babyzone.com. The mail was about joining the Huggies Baby Network and getting free goodies. Free goodies!? Sure, why not! So Mommy opened the mail and clicked on to complete the registration process. In the Huggies Baby Network website, Mommy found this interesting page: http://www.huggieshappybaby.com/tools/pm.aspx This page allowed Mommy to create free videos featuring Juan Or as the main star. Oooohh.....this was fun! So Mommy managed to create three movies (actually movie trailers) by making use of some cute Juan Or photos, went through long wait to upload, download and playing the interface despite the slow Internet traffic, sent these movies back to Mommy's Yahoo Mail again so that Mommy can copy and paste the URL links into this blog (right hand panel, scroll downwards, it's just after the Blog Archive, the section called "Juan Or's Baby Movie Trailers"). Enjoy!