Through my eyes

My dad likes to bring me to trade fairs and exhibitions like MATTA travel fair and ITX computer fair. At these fairs, he will be so busy moving around from stall to stall gathering information from the people or just gather as many brochures as possible.

Most of the time, I do not understand what he was discussing with the people manning the stall. Sometimes, my dad will explain to me about the information displayed on the exhibition displays stand. He will ask me questions about my understanding on what I observed on the display stands as well. If I do not know, he will explain further.

Before he approaches any of the stalls for information, he will spend sometime reading about the company or products advertised on the exhibition displays. Since I am not as tall as the adults, the exhibition displays are really blocking my views of the whole trade fair. Sometimes, I had to ask my dad to carry me so that I can see what is going on at the other side of the hall.

But then, not all exhibition displays are nuisance to me. I like those stands with cartoons or movies information on it. I will drag my dad or mum to see them and make them bring me to see the movies in the cinema or buy me the DVDs to watch at home.

Now, I simply could not believe it. I just watched my third movie in 1 week. I wonder why my mum and dad were so free to bring me to watch so many movies. Tonight, we watched ‘Alvin and The Chipmunks‘. This movie is based on the singing chipmunk characters created by Ross Bagdasarian Sr in 1958. This movie uses the digital technology to give the chipmunks much more ‘kick’ and yet retained their lovable characters which we know and love so much.

This movie was about three chipmunks Alvin, Simon and Theodore who got themselves transplanted from the jungle into the city and they ended up in the house of a rejected song composer, David Seville (Jason Lee). In David’s house, the created a big mess, caused him to loose his job and spoilt his dinner date with his girlfriend.

Somehow, David discovered their musical talents and brought them his friend Ian Hawk (David Cross), who is a recording agent. Ian tricked the chipmunks to leave David and joined him. He promised the chipmunks fame and wealth. He eventually stressed out the chipmunks with too many shows.

As in every fairy tale, the ending is always sweet. The chipmunks eventually team up with David again.

I just could not believe it!!! Tonight my parents took me for another movie. This time, it was ‘Golden Compass‘ directed by Chris Weitz. This movie was based on the first novel “His Dark Materials” trilogy by Philip Pullman.

In this movie, animals and human are interconnected where animals known as daemons are manifesting human souls. In this movie, a young orphan, Lyra Belacqua (Dakota Blue Richards) set out on a journey to save her uncle Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig), who has a snow leopard as his daemon,  who was captured by his enemies in search of the Northern Light. Lyra’s daemon was a Pantalaimon.

Before Lord Asriel set off for his journey, he gave Lyra the alethiometer, a truth meter. With the alethiometer, Lyra was able to find the truth which helped saved her life on many occasions.

Initially, Lyra befriended Mrs Coulter (Nicole Kidman) who was supposed to help her but eventually they split when Lyra found out that Mrs Coulter was an emissary from the Magisterium.

In the movie, Lyra met with so many characters like the fairy Serafina Pekkala (Eva Green) and Lee Scoresby (Sam Elliot). One of the most interesting character is the warrior bear Iorek Byrnison (voice by McKellen) who helped Lyra in her battle with the enemies at the Northen Light.

However, Lyra did not manage to find Lord Asriel. Her journey continues and we can expect a sequel very soon. I can wait to see the next sequel.

My parents, uncle and aunt took me for a movie at 1-Utama this evening. The movie we watched was ‘Enchanted‘ by Walt Disney. This is a fairy tale story which combined elements from ‘Alice in Wonderland’, ‘Snow White and Seven Dwarfs’, ‘Sound of Music’, ‘King Kong’, ‘Batman’ and ‘Cinderella’ and turn it into a wonderfully nice and entertaining movie.

The story started as a animation story where Giselle (Acted by Amy Adams) fell in love with her Prince Edward (James Marsden) and was supposed to get married. If they were to get married, then Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon) would have to step down to make way for the newly wed couple. Queen Narissa plotted to kill Giselle. In the palace ground, she pushed Giselle into a well. She kept falling as if the well was bottomless until she reached a man-hole in New York.

From an animation story, it turned into real life movie. In New York, Giselle met a single father Robert (Patrick Dempsey) and his daughter Morgan (Rachel Covey). Initially, Giselle was supposed to stay overnight at Robert’s place. Eventually, Morgan started liking Giselle and they began great friends.

When Queen Narissa discovered that  Giselle was alive, she send her sidekick to kill Giselle. When he failed, Queen Narissa decided she should go to New York herself to do the job.

This is when the fiery battle to kill Giselle which ended as how every fairy tale should end. Giselle was saved by Robert with a kiss after she fell into a deep sleep from eating a poison apple. Queen Narissa was killed in a battle with Robert.

My mum and dad came back from work early as promised. We wanted to decorate the Christmas tree with our latest Nutcracker decorative items that mum bought from her trip to Seattle.

I was very busy helping mum and dad to fix the additional decorative items on the tree. They were very worried that I may break some of their precious things. So far, I have been good at it. No breakage. But mum and dad we still so worried.

Here is one of the ‘ball’ that my dad gladly let me put on the tree. He said it won;t break even if I dropped it.

When the tree is up, it’s picture time. Dad wanted to take some pictures of the tree, mum and I.

Finally mum is coming back. Today is the day. Sunday 2nd December 2007. Dad and I went to airport to fetch mum. We waited for her at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport arrival hall for her. After awhile, she walked out from the terminal. I was so happy and ran to hug her.

She told me that she bought me a few dresses, lots of chocolate and some toys. I just wait to go home to see these toys. At home, she opened her bags and showed me my gifts from her. She bought me a nutcracker, nutcracker musical box and nutcracker Christmas tree decorative items plus a Barbie doll - Princess Elina from the Fairytopia - Magic of the Rainbow movie.

She bought some t-shirts from Seattle and a mug from the first Starbucks outlet for dad. She knew dad is crazy about the fish shop in Seattle market, she got him a t-shirt of the fish market.

I cant wait to put up the Christmas tree decorative items but my mum told me to wait till tomorrow as everyone was tired. We will try out the chocolates my mum bought for us today.

I am going to attend three birthday parties today!!! That’s will be after my usual Yamaha music class in the morning. That’s what my dad told me. I hope he doesn’t trick me into believing there will be three birthday parties today. Anyway, we will be going for these parties without mum who is awa in Seattle attending company meeting.

First, I have to promise to be attentive during the Yamaha music lesson and second, must finish my lunch before he brings me to the parties.

The first two parties are meant for my grand-aunt and her granddaughter, who is my second cousin, Danielle. They have a join birthday celebration at their house. We went there after lunch and I enjoyed myself playing with my cousins there. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any birthday cakes because the real celebration was in the evening. We had to leave early to go to the next birthday celebration.

The third birthday was for my aunt who takes care of me everyday. We had a family dinner for her with birthday cake. This time I could sing ‘Happy Birthday’ song for her.

By the time, the parties were over, I was exhausted and I went to bed earlier than usual. The next day, my mum will be back from Seattle and we will go to KLIA to fetch her.

This week, I will be staying at home with my dad. Only two of us without my mum. She is away in Seattle on business trip.

Dad told me that he will come back early from work to bring me go walk about in 1-Utama and Curve. He knows my favorite is New Zealand Ice Cream and Rotiboy. I am sure he will get me these two things after my dinner.

After that we will go home to watch movies together. But, most of the time, I will have to wait for him to complete the housework before we can watch the movies together. He will be busy with house work like boiling water, laundry, cleaning house, etc and I helped him.

Later, we will play some games like “snake and ladder”, ludo and tic-tac-toe. Then, he read me stories for me before I sleep.

Today is my mum and dad’s wedding anniversary and mum called from Seattle to talk to us before we go to bed. She told us that it was very early in Seattle.

Mummy has been telling me that she is going off for business trip again. This time is only for one week to Seattle. I guess she wants to prepare me to live without her for a week. I am fine to have only dad around. We are counting days until the day she will leave for Seattle.

The day before she leaves she reminded me one more time that she will leave the next day. She told me she will leave very early and probably, I will still be asleep when she leaves. She promised to bring back presents from Seattle.

When I woke up this morning, my mum has already left for the airport. My dad told me my mum has left at 7AM when I was still asleep.

Later, dad took me out for breakfast and we went swimming at the neighborhood club.

When we at Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra to watch the The Swan Lake concert last weekend, my parents got interested in another concert - Dances of The Seven Veils. The concert was scheduled for the next weekend. The next day, my mum bought the tickets for three of us. And she forgot to check for age limit for the concert.

When we went for the concert, they realized that I may not be able to go in because I am underage. Minimum age was 8. They asked me to keep quiet and act like an 8 year old girl. We were hoping for the best. Luckily, no one stopped us at the entrance. The usher just showed us to our seats. They reminded me to stay quiet throughout the whole concert.

The concert was conducted by Claus Peter Flor and the main pianist was Orli Shaham. The orchestra played three compositions for that evening. The main one was Dance of The Seven Veils composed by Richard Strauss, Piano Concerto No 27 in B Flat by Mozart and Also Sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss.

The Dance of The Seven Veil was such a long musical composition. It was almost an hour long before we had a break. My mum and dad kept checking on me to make sure I was comfortable. I managed to sit through the whole concert without talking to anyone.

After the concert, my mum reminded me that she will travel the next day to Seattle for her work.