Live and Die on this Day

Okay, so lately I've been addicted to this game called Catching Fire: Panem Run.

It's pretty much identical to Temple Run except its got the Hunger Games theme, hence why I love it (I'm such a sucker). I'm not too sure about what Temple Run does but in this game you go through districts 4, 5 and 12 collecting items that Katniss left behind while being chased by Tracker Jackers. If you fall into a pit or trip or something, then the Tracker Jackers will kill you, but if you stumble on a breakable object (anything wooden), the Tracker Jackers just get closer to you. If you stumble a second time, then they kill you but if you go for a period of time without stumbling, they'll fall behind again. Oh and there are also archery sections where you have to hit targets and the Tracker Jackers conveniently don't follow you into them.

ANYWAY I really like this game, but just recently I updated it and now I can't do free runs by myself anymore, I have to go against someone in a match! Now I have SO MANY MATCHES awaiting other players' turns and I can't just play by myself it's so saddening! Especially because I need to collect items so I can upgrade my skills and stuff (yes, I'm one of those people)...


ALSO another thing that's been keeping me busy these holidays is watching movies!

My goal is to watch all the DVDs in my house that I haven't watched yet (except my mum's Chinese films), there's probably about 10-20 of them. Then on top of that I might revisit some of the good movies that I haven't seen in yonks!

I can't really remember everything I've watched, so I'll just talk about two films:

The Grey

This was quite an intense movie. It follows a group of employees who are stranded in the snow after their plane crashed and they have to find a way to survive. To make matters worse, they seem to have landed within preying radius of a wolf den.

It stars Liam Neeson, who is amazing as always, and is a bit slow to start, but the momentum starts to pick up a bit into it, once they get stranded. I quite liked this movie because it seemed quite real. There were many ways to die, there were many threats, there were psychological tactics when dealing with the wolves, there was the funny bantering about how they were all going to die (which was humorous but at the same time heartbreaking because you realised that these people had already partly given up on their survival), and you had some moments where people broke down (like when one guy starts maniacally laughing after he realises someone has died).

The best part, the part that makes the movie, is this four-lined poem:

Once more into the fray.
Into the last good fight I'll ever know.
Live and die on this day.
Live and die on this day.
I think that's a really powerful poem, and you might not understand why without watching the movie, so go watch it! =]


Batman Returns

Oh my goodness, this was actually so horrible to watch! It was really slow, really dark, really weird and just so boring. The story is okay, with the Penguin and Catwoman going up against Batman, but it was just directed really weirdly. It was, after all, Tim Burton, so a lot of the scenes were really dark. I don't mind this, but it's just that some scenes seemed too exaggerated, especially Catwoman's transformation (but Michelle Pfeiffer was amazing). Honestly, it was just Tim Burton being weird.

I usually don't have problems sleeping, but after watching this movie, I slept quite well. So don't watch it.


Speaking of sleeping, I wanted to tell you about this Deep Sleep Bath Milk I bought!

Since I work at The Body Shop (at Castle Towers, come visit me!!), I'm getting to know their products a lot. I found out they had this bath milk that supposedly, if you soak in it before sleeping, helps you relax and makes you sleep better.

I was really sceptical about this because it seems really... silly. I also heard about other brands that did the same thing though, so I knew it wasn't such a crazy notion but it still just seems really weird how that would help you sleep.

On the same line, they even have one spray thing where, if you spray it on your pillow, it helps you sleep better. That sounds really weird to me, but I guess that would make more sense than the bath milk (because the mist could maybe drug you or something I don't know).

But anyway, I tried it one time and it actually worked! I actually went to sleep pretty quickly (it usually takes me maybe 3 hours to fall asleep, but that night I think I slept in about 1 hour), and I had a pretty good sleep. The only thing was that when I woke up I still felt really tired and for a few hours I was so sleepy I could barely do anything.

Firstly, I just want to say that it may very well have been a sheer coincidence; I could have just been tired that day, I could just get super relaxed by baths alone, it could have been the placebo effect, the list goes on. I will try it again another time and see how it goes for me. BUT I just wanted to let you know about it because for someone like me, who has suffered from mild insomnia for the entirety of my life, this is a big deal for me.

I can not remember a time where I would lie down in bed and sleep quickly.

Ever since I remembered, I have always gone to bed and have been forced to just lie there for several hours before sleeping. I'm not sure if my insomnia has caused me to over-think things and have a very active mind, or if my active mind has caused the insomnia. Either way, 18 years into my life it seems like a really difficult thing to change without intervention, which is why, when a bath milk float comes along and seems to work, I will hold onto it with my dear life.

Anyway, the milk bath in that line has been discontinued already, so if after I try it a second, third, fourth time and it works, I might just buy the rest of it hehe.

It's worth about $37 and my manager said it was one of the most profitable products in the shop, so she has no idea why it got discontinued, and that she herself bought 6 bottles when she found out that production would stop.

The other things like the oil, moisturisers, etc. are still for sale, so if you feel like giving it a go then let me know!


Well I think I've written enough for now. I actually wanted to blog about some other stuff and I ended up talking about these movies and some bath milk...

But I'm too tired now so I shall leave the other stuff for later! It's time for me to head to bed where I will lay there for 3 hours talking to myself =[

Wet 'n' Wild

Today I visited Wet 'n' Wild for the preview day!

It was pretty fun, we rocked up at about 9:30am and just went straight in, there weren't many lines or anything especially because we had our season passes on so we just scanned them at the entrance.

If you're planning on visiting, first things first: you need a locker. You can buy them at the cafe for $10 for a small or $12 for a large. We had seven people and we needed two large lockers. The prices are for the entire day and you get to pick whatever locker is open and you just scan your myBand to lock/open it. It's pretty nifty and handy.

Another thing is that your myBand can have money loaded onto it so you don't need to carry around your wallet and money and stuff. None of us did that, but it seems like a really good idea because supposedly at the end of the day you can just take back whatever money you have on your band that you didn't use.


Next: the rides.

There are four lots of water rides (excluding the kids' ones).

This includes one section that can hold 3-5 people. On this section, off memory there was the Double Bowlseye (red and yellow), which was really fun and some other ones which I've forgotten the names of.

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It's hard to remember but these ones were pretty fun and the queue wasn't that long (but maybe just because we lined up for them in the morning).


Then there was one section that held 3-4 people. You can recognise this one because it's got a HUGE green funnel thing and it's also next to the single person section.

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That huge green funnel is called the T5 and according to the site, you drop at a 45 degree angle down that funnel. Unfortunately we weren't able to get on that one because it was already 2pm and they closed the entrances up (the morning session of the preview was from 9am-2pm, but you can see when the theme park opens up normally here).

We did end up going on the other two. The Bombora (red and orange) was a really long one (120m) with three smaller funnels that you can sort of see here.

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It seemed like it was going to be really amazing, but it was a bit of a disappointment. In the funnel sections, you don't really go all the way to the top and there are these sections where the water splashes you a lot but you slow down heaps. I don't know whether it's just because our combination was the lightest combination (Me, Diwan and Alice Chan) since the other boys (Justin Dai, Damien, Kenneth and Dulan) gathered up for the mass, but we almost came to a halt and we had to keep shimmying the raft to get it moving again.

I wouldn't really recommend that ride (unless your group has the mass) if there's a huge line, but definitely try out the Tantrum (blue).

In the Tantrum, there's a 15m drop before you have to ride up this thing:

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It's almost vertical and was quite a bit of fun, except make sure you hold on tight! I lifted up about 2-3 times in this ride because of the drops and if I wasn't holding on I seriously could have just fallen off (and it wasn't just me, Kenneth experienced the same)! This one was probably the most fun according to the majority of the group, but it, along with most of the other rides, was pretty short-lived though.


Then there were the sections for two people.

This section has about 7 rides, but the four middle ones (The Breakers) are more-or-less the same. The only difference is that the two middle red ones have a steeper slope at the finish.

The cool thing about these ones is that you can race your friends on them because they can let you all go at the same time.

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You start off on a pretty steep slope and then you get propelled up that netted area. It gets super wet and the propellers even made my bikini bottoms slip a bit!

Then in that section there's also a purple and blue ride called the Half Pipe. After a moment of complete darkness you get dropped off 16 m and you slide up this wall at the end:

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And the one next to that (red and yellow) was a pretty long ride that was just in complete darkness! It was so scary because I'm afraid of the dark and you have no idea where you are going to turn next and it's so terrible!

There were some other ones but the lines for that section were really long and so we didn't do them. There was a purple and yellow one that was done completely backwards that I will need to try next time!

And just a warning that these rides CANNOT take one person only, so if you have an odd-numbered group you would need one person to grab another lonely stranger and ride with them. We took turns on who was alone, but try to organise beforehand to get an even number. Eight is probably ideal but even 6 is good because on the 3-5 person rides you can split it 3-3.


THE LAST SECTION was the single person section.

This one had the classic H2GO Racers, with eight lanes for you to race each other in.

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It kind of twists and turns and right before the end sloping bit, you get this amazing light feature!

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Also just warning you that when you come down you should look up because they have the times at the top to show you who won. I'm pretty sure Kenneth won our one Diwan won that one and I would have come last because I'm so light and my reaction is terrible so I paused before jumping in. For some reason when we all stood up, picked up our mat and then started walking off, none other than Justin Dai rocked up, saying that he literally stopped in one section of the tube and he had to try to start again...

Anyway that was really fun and right next to it were the 360Rush rides. There are 4 of them, two on each side.

Basically what happens is you stand in this little capsule that looks like a space capsule and there's a trap door underneath you. They then drop you 12m ALMOST VERTICALLY and you go through a complete loop:

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Now, what happens if you get stuck?

Well, fear not! If you don't gain enough momentum to complete the loop there's a little opening at the bottom of the loop that you can stand up and leave from. They might not tell you this when you go in though. In fact, this is what happened to this woman last year at the Wet 'n' Wild at Gold Coast.

As I noted though, they left these escape hatches open so if this does happen to you, then it should be all fine.


LASTLY we have the random stuff that don't fit anywhere.

There was the artificial Surf Deck and the Sydney SkyCoaster.

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These two rides you need to pay extra for each time you go on it. The Surf Deck is some artificial surf simulator where you can even take lessons (I think), and the SkyCoaster is some massive 75m high giant swing!

Geez, no thanks.

But currently it's not completed yet and I'm not too sure how long it would take for it to be open.

There was also the artificial beach. Probably not the best thing to go to when you need to pay so much for a ticket into Wet 'n' Wild, but it was alright. Some parts were nice and shallow for you to sit in and near the deep end they have some small waves going on. The area looks small but when you consider the areas of a beach in between the red and yellow flags, this beach actually seems quite big.

I couldn't find any pictures of the beach but I mean it's just a beach so you probably don't need pictures of it...

Also, there are some little cabanas near the beach, which look like little houses that have beach chairs in them for you to sit and lounge around. There were also some VIP cabanas right next to the beach that even had a fridge and TV. They looked really fancy but it wasn't available to us. Looking at the website, the price for a VIP one is $199 per day, whilst the normal ones are $89 per day and the family ones are $149 per day.


This was during the day time, and so the night time experience will be really different. There are some light shows going on for the rides, but I think they are just on the OUTSIDE of the rides.


And another cool thing is that when you go no the rides, you can scan your myBand just before the ride, then they will take photos of you coming out of the ride, upload them to your myBand and you can check them out on the website. The site is a bit laggy at the moment and the photos haven't been uploaded yet, but when they are I'll definitely post the good ones up here!


Anyway, that's about it for Wet 'n' Wild!

Definitely grab some sunscreen and water, buy a locker, go and have funsies at Wet 'n' Wild!

Holiday Fun (sort of not really)

I finished reading The Help!

The book is set in 1960s Mississippi, when African American maids worked for white households. It's told through three perspectives: Aibileen, an African American woman who is raising her seventeenth white child while still coping with her own son's death; Minny, an African American maid who always manages to get on the wrong side of people; and Miss Skeeter, an American woman out of college who wants to be an author. As we go from perspective to perspective, chapter to chapter, their story unfolds in such a great way to reveal the effects of racial integration.

I think what's interesting about this book is that it's got the highs and the lows of black and white relationships. It goes through, expectantly, the negative consequences and emotions of racial prejudice, but it also goes through characters who treat African Americans so positively and nurturing. I think most disturbing of all are the characters who don't actually care about race, but nevertheless treat their maids unfairly for the sake of conforming to their friends and their society.

I really liked this book, and I highly recommend it. It's very enjoyable and very easy to empathise with the characters. The plot is done well and there are some moments of humour and some moments of great distress, so it doesn't get boring or tedious or anything like that. The ending is very powerful to me because it's really bittersweet; no one really loses but at the same time no one really wins. Definitely give it a read if you're looking for something these holidays =]


And on Wednesday last week my uncle (who was on holiday from Malaysia) took my family on a cruise around Sydney!

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It was pretty fancy with a three-course meal. I forgot to take pictures of the main meal (chicken with mashed potatos and veggies) because let's face it, I'm not hipster enough to remember to take pictures of food. Some of these pictures were taken by my mum while some were taken on my phone so I'll apologise in advance about the mix of quality.

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There was even a magician host who called himself 'Jack Black'... he was pretty lame but his tricks were quite impressive. But the main thing was the show that was on during the last hour. It consisted of all these showgirls and one showboy, as well as a singer (who was way too old and out of shape to be wearing the things she was wearing and dancing the things she was dancing) and their theme was 'All Around the World' so they had all these costumes, songs and dances that were inspired by cultures around the world. I really loved the dancing, and the costumers were simply amazing! We weren't allowed to take pictures or videos during the show so here's a pic of them dancing at the beginning of the cruise (sorry it's blurry):

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OH I also got my Hunger Games ID delivered in the mail!

I can't believe I actually got this haha but it was only like $2 so why not!

AND I got my Wet'n'Wild season passes!

So excited, honestly can't wait!


And I have a funny story to tell you about Kris Kringle.

Well I was out at lunch and we were organising our Kris Kringle, then out of the blue Joyce suggests an express Kris Kringle where we have 15 minutes to buy a $5 item for our person. We were near Haymarket so we decided to go to Market City since everything there is cheap.

Oh my goodness I was so stressed because I was like FIFTEEN MINUTES IS NOTHING! But in the end it actually worked out really well. Most of us finished about 9 or 10 minutes in while Alice finished right at 15 minutes. I ended up getting Joyce a lipliner for $3 and a sharpener for it for $2 while Alice ended up getting me retarded Spongebob magnets for $4 and pop-up Despicable Me stickers for $1.

They don't even look like spongebob!
All in all it was a pretty enjoyable experience and it wasn't too hard to find stuff because Haymarket has a huge variety of products in such a small area and it's all really cheap too. We thought that maybe we should cut down the time limit to 10 minutes because it didn't seem that stressful to us (except Alice).

Anyway we're still doing our normal Kris Kringle but it was a great fun, affordable, easy and different spin on Kris Kringle that maybe you could try out!


I also watched Happy Feet Two

Looking at the cast (Elijah Wood, P!nk, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Robin Williams, Sofía Vergara, Magda Szubanski, Hugo Weaving, Hank Azaria) you'd think this would be a really great movie right? Well, it was absolutely horrid. I have no idea what happened in the film because there was absolutely no plot, the storyline was all over the place and everything was just so confusing! I kept thinking, "Brad Pitt is in this surely it gets better..." but closer to the end you start thinking, "WHY did he sign up to this, why did ANYONE sign up to this?!"

I was seriously so surprised that some people from the original movie actually signed up to this one seeing as it was a huge waste of time and effort on their part. The only things that were good were the visuals and P!nk's singing.

Literally, that's it.

Don't watch it and let's pray there's not a third.