Istana Open House

Finally.

Got a glimpse of the place after so many years.
Unfortunately didn't manage to go into the main building as all entry tickets were taken.

The next open house will be around CNY 2016.

People are queueing up to take pictures with the dance performers.

The famous round reading room of British Library @ The British Museum, 2006

The girl with the dragon tattoo is back

Three years has passed since I read Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy.

Never expect another author David Lagercrantz, a crime journalist, will continue the sequel since the original author Stieg Larsson had died suddenly and unexpectedly in Nov 2004, a year before the first novel in the Millennium trilogy was to be published. He did not live to see how successful the books were to become.

Started on Friday night, finished at dawn on Sunday morning. Shown that I have been fully immersed in the book. This fourth instalment was enjoyable and engaging, though a little lengthy in the first third - Millennium Magazine is in trouble and purchased by a larger company. Our main character Mikael Blomkvist is unhappy and unmotivated blah blah blah.  But once you get through it, as the story gathered pace, it got better and better.

Lisbeth Salander, the pale, skinny young weirdo who has lots of tattoo over her body is still very cool. Like Lisbeth, I hate her twin sister Camilla who is an evil twelve-pointer (Oooh! How I love this words for extraordinary beautiful).

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Some told me Iphone is safer than Android phone and some told me otherwise.  Those said that also claimed Samsung is the worst of all.  Well, I simply can't be bothered.  I have both Iphone and Samsung Android phone.  Each has it own pro and con.

Anyway, in the book, Android phone is recommended for security purpose.  Red phone app and Threema app are real apps.  Hmmm ..... shall try it out.

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I have found out later that there are some controversial issues concerning its copyright. Apparently this book is written without reference to the original author's plans for the fourth book and without the consent of his long time partner Eva Gabrielsson who helped him write the first three. For further information, see http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-stieg-larssons-partner-appalled-by-millennium-business-2015-3?IR=T&

However, put aside the issues, I have to admit that David Lagercrantz has done a good job and while I would never want to compare this with the original three books, I have no problem in continuing to read this series. I am just happy that Lisbeth Salander is back.

Lo-lee-ta

I thought I already have a copy bought eons ago, tucked somewhere deep in one of the high level shelves, waiting obscurely & patiently for my caresses one fine day. Alas. I was wrong.  Couldn't find it after a thorough search.

Eventually bought this Penguin copy last week at Kinokuniya Bookstore.  Known about the book, heard about the story fairly long long time ago from reviews, books on books, and may be even the internet.  Simply didn't get to read it.  May be I was not ready by then, who knows.

It was amazing that not a single obscene term can be found in the work, meaning no four letter words which are norm for 'erotic' novels.

The famous opening paragraph of Vladimir Nabokov's most controversial novel:

“Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta. She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita..”

Found a real good explanation as below :

The middle-aged Humbert Humbert is so obsessed with 12-year-old Lolita. She is his sin and she is his soul (his everything). She lights his life, and arouses him.

But the passage is about more things -- it sets the tone for his character, and the style of the book. He is in love with the sound of his own voice. Speaking her name is a sensual experience for him -- the alliteration a literal trip of his tongue through his mouth. While for many people being in love evokes sensual feelings, here Humbert's sensual enjoyment is his own internal creation. As we will learn, Humbert's vision of Lolita is comically askew of the actual girl, who is crass and typical. This is what Humbert shares with Nabokov: not the love of too-young girls, but a love of the artifice of language, a sensual pleasure in language, and the joy of being able to create out of nothing. Note that is is not just the word "Lolita" which is described by Humbert -- it also applies to the fuller sentence: "the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth." An orgy of the letter t. Nabokov is gorgeously over the top here -- Humbert is over the top but not in control. The excessiveness of the language is one more clue to Humbert's character and self-delusion. So, in short, yes: it is about the fact that she arouses him and the pleasure he takes in saying her name.

Till the end of the story, I wonder if Humbert was the one who debauching Lolita, or the other way round in a wicked way.

To:let

Due to ceiling leakage, repair works were carried out from the upper floor unit in mid August. I then patched up and painted the ceiling a week later using Dulux Wash & Wear Kitchen & Bathroom Ceiling Flat.

I've been monitoring since.  Alas. Within 2 months, crack lines started to appear. It means somehow the ceiling is still moist.

To make thing worse, during the repairs and redecoration project till December, the cleaners started cleaning the whole building last two days with high-pressure water jet.  Imagine with the 'antique' windows which cannot close 100% tightly, water of course was splashed through the gaps bringing in the dirts all over the 2 toilets.

In short, the basins, the toilet bow, the walls and the ceiling of both were covered with dirts.
(I've forgotten to take a pic -_-!)

I had to flush clean the whole toilets.  The few peeled-off patches were the results.

Temporarily patched them up again  and see how long it will go. Guess will need to get a license contractor in future to do a proper patching work eventually.

Sunday Indulgence

Oh Mind ! My incredible who is barely one month
away from his 17th Bday is having beer.
Yeah,  like real.  It is just imported orange juice.

This beef stew @ Stuttgart Blackforest Boutique S-Cafe  is delish.

Like the fake floor tiles @ Rendezvous Hotel

A.L.I.E.N

Alien !
Alien !
Alien has invaded my screen !

Hooray!