Tangled by Emma Chase

See...what i mean with perfect book to read on bed *grinning ear to ear

It was during the Ied Fitr holiday (about a week), when one of my former coworker suddenly dropped me a line and sent me, what she said as recommended fiction that I might like. It turned out to be an ebook (in epub format) which made me quickly downloaded my epub reader on android. Yes, I normally read ebook in pdf format. She also told me an url which I can browse hundreds of fictions' title...‎​‎​⊙.◎ ‎​‎​w(°ｏ°)w ⊙.◎ *practically droll dripping 【ツ】ƗƗє²² ƗƗє²² ƗƗє²²【ツ】

Anyway, since it was holiday, I didn't have time to read it as the soonest as I can. But fortunately (or unfortunately?) as I caught terrible flu (probably too tired during the vacation) which kept pounding my head...sneezing...caughing...running nose and I had to stay on bed, finally I can read it. It was a surprice...in a nice way right from the very first page. Tell you why...I was wondering (before reading this book)...why I had never read a single fiction with male's perspective. Almost all fictions (especially the romance ones) features the female. I thought probably because most of the author is female. However, Emma Chase, the author of this book is definitely a female yet she can write a fiction with male' brain...the way the story unfolds...the wording...the terms...the male ego...it's totally male (in capital letter). If I didn't know, I would probably have guessed that the author was male as well.

It tells about a single, handsome, successful, and apparently rich bachelor in town (ehm...sounds yummy rite) but has zero attitude especially toward the opposite sex. Until Drew meets Kate, which is smart and sexy newcomer in the office. Unfortunately Kate is engaged and Drew tries all tricks on his sleeves to get Kate on his bed (literally). When finally Kate breaks her engagement and is on Drew's bed, how does Drew react when he find out that he has fallen so hard for Kate?

Well, I am not going to spoil your reading but tell you this, this is definitely a great book to read while you are spending all day on bed This book let you take a peek on what is going on inside every man' head...not much...just a glimpse but it is useful anyway. Terrific :-)

Thanks to my friend who sent me this *hugs

Elysium - the movie

Image taken from www.imdb.com

Elysium is a movie of utopian and dystopian countries. It retold about the future of earth where everything was crumbled and rubbles. No greenery, no beautiful places with hungry, dirty, sick and unfortunate people flocking around of what used to be the evidence of the human' advancement. While these 'unwanted' people eyeing the sparkling place in the sky, the people of Elysium lived in perfect peace and harmony. No sickness, no starved people, not even an ugliness was exist in Elysium, unless the feeling of greed and selfishness.

Max, an orphaned boy who was raised together with Frey, was used to be a low class recidivist. But he turned over a new page and filled his dreadful day by working a honest low-pay-with-long-shift job at the only factory on the earth,the Armadyne Corporation. Accidentally, Max was exposed to lethal level of radiation and was dismissed from the factory with several pills to keep him functioning until the end of his last 5 days.

Unwilling to succumb into his fate, Max contacted Spider, sorta mafia and made a deal which would illegally smuggle Max into Elysium to use the med-bed to cure his radiation. As a compensation, Max agreed to help Spider steal classified information from Elysium' people. Their target was the head of Armadyne Corporation, Carlyle which unknown to them, just agreed with Jessica Delacourt, a high level Elysium' minister to coup the current Elysium' goverment under President Patek. Carlyle just finished written a new set of program which will reboot the whole system of Elysium.

So when Max stole the 'brain' of Carlyle, Delacourt announced a full scale man-hunt using the crazy mercenary, Kruger. When Max realized the price of information stolen by him which was stored in his head, Max decided to use the program to redefine the classification of Elysium citizenship. Though he knew by activating the program in his head would bring immediate death to him, at the end, Max realized the meaning of his life...the sole reason of his living being and the beauty of the place called earth.

Overall I like the movie a lot, especially seeing it on an Imax screen. The Elysium was beautifully constructed and earth was dramatically ruined. However, the ending was too much of drama (imho) when basically the root issue between earth and elysium could probably be simply solved by putting few med-beds on earth. Anyway, I am wondering how close the prediction of Elysium of the future of our dear planet...maybe I should start saving up my share for Elysium :-)

Novotel Vintage - Phuket

Giant sculpture on the lobby wall

The Budha's head

Pool in nite view

Different city means another chance for us to try another Accor hotel. In Phuket, we decided to stay at the newest establishment of Novotel Vintage. Instead of hotel, Novotel adopted the resort type which was much suitable with the holiday atmosphere of Phuket. Located around 10mins of leisure walk to Patong beach (one of the famous beach in Phuket), Novotel was quite eye-catching especially at night. Huge building stretching widely right on T-intersection street bustling with bars, seafood restaurants, hawkers, minimarts, as well as tattoo shops (man - I was trying to restrain myself for not stepping in...but it didn't keep me from peeping LOL).

The big comfy bed

Quarterly shape bathtub

Wall painting in the room...very unique

Giant art work displaying the ancient story (something related to fairy) of Thai welcomed us at the lobby. It was midnight (we used the last flight from Bkk-Phuket) but the lobby was still crowded with guests sitting and chatting around in their short, tanktop, and slippers...not a common view at our previous hotels. While my husband was checking in, I looked around the lobby. A human-size Budha's head stone statue was erected on side, with rows of Thai's statues as separation between the lobby and the sitting lounge. Huge golden chandelier was hang high, glittering on the ceiling. The whole building was shaped in square with big empty space in the middle for the pool. For first-timer, it was kinda confusing to find your way, but you would get used to it after lost your way several times *winking

View from our room

The resort style pool

The whole complex from across the street

With unusual way of room numbering, we were shown to our room. The room was big, with bathroom right in front side, the bedroom and small terrace outside overlooking the pool. Awesome! They even provided a chair and a bar to hang your wet clothes on the balcony. While I was admiring the nite view of the pool, I noticed the rooms on the ground floor were equipped with jacuzzi right in their door step...woah...I was green-eyed. Back to the room, I checked the hard king size bed. They gave 2kinds of pillow, the countour one but felt so hard on my neck and the micro fibre one which was too high as well. Finally I settled myself by pilling up the plush bath towels for my pillow *grinning. As usual, my hubby claimed the big long couch on the side but at night, he sneaked onto the bed due to the cold. Medium sized flat screen tv provided large numbers of channel to choose for your in-room entertainment. Equipped with coffee/tea maker, empty mini bar, sdb, iron and its table, it ensured your stay here was as comfy as home. Especially the quarter-circle-shape tub in the bathroom with strong rain shower. Really perfect... for my girls *grinning

The golden shimmering atmosphere

Did you see the small square pool on the left...yeah those are private ones

The most outstanding facility of Novotel Vintage was the resort-style pool. It was huge, with rain-drop partition, strong fountain-pour to massage your shoulder, whirpool, kids pool, as well as spraying toddler pool. Occupying one of the pool's corner, the coconut's leaves roof wet-pool-bar served various beverages from carbonated drinks to beer, from fresh juices to the house-recommended-coctail. Large number of sundeck were splaying around the pool, for you to put your stuff while taking a dip or simply sun-bathing. Across the pool, there was The Square restaurant for your fill of delicious meals. Several souvenir shops were inside the lobby, enabling you to buy goodies without leaving the hotel. Anyway, who would want to venture outside the hotel when everything that you need was available within your room-door-step? 

Inferno by Dan Brown

This time, Dan Brown (DB) features the famous Harvard symbiologist Robert Langdon (RL) again. However, instead of unwrapping hidden meaning between symbols, RL was supposed to uncover events happened before he lost his memory due to bullet's graze over his head (ehm...reminded me of similar situation of Bourne *winking). Pairing up with genius and prodigy Sienna Brooks (SB), an illegal doctor who saved him, they solved the puzzle on why RL was targetted and how to prevent the threathen deathly plaque. Once again, RL's vast knowledge was being tested and he was torn between the real friends among foes, who should be trusted and who shouldn't. But as predicted from DB, he twisted the plot in an unexpected way on the last few chapters. I was jaw-dropped!

And as usual, DB writes with such descriptive details of places and buildings. However, it was too jaded (imho) and put me yawning all the time (just like the beautiful description on The Swan Thief - the only unfinished book). On some chapters, I was confused whether the info that I read was the real data or something twisted by DB. And honestly, it isn't worth for me to go all the way checking the validity of the info contained here. So I just accepted whatever I read here.

While reading this, I thought the whole idea of this book was based on the single book (geez...a single book could be developed into something great as this). It was some sort of in-depth analysis on the famous (though I just knew it recently) work of Dante, known The Divine Comedy. The Divine Comedy (it was epic poet instead of funny satire) is divided into 3parts, Inferno (the most-read one), Purgatorio, and Paradiso (praise Google yay). It tells the journey of Dante through the hell, going thru purgatory and finally arrives in paradise. In short, it was assumed that to reach the paradise, human being had to go through the hell first. Explanation on Dante's Inferno made me feel like being in the RL's world history class at Harvard. It was beyond imagination, how the life and inheritance of Dante could be transformed into world's crisis with page-turning chasing.

In a way, it was a tough book to read with lotsa difficult words and terms that I kept my mobile close. I had to consult with Google and Wiki since my knowledge of Europe, medieval art and history were limited. Instead of globe trotting like on the previous adventure of RL, the main events this time took place only in Florence (sounds like a very beautiful city - ehm...wondering when I could visit this city along with other European famous cities as well), a little bit of puzzle solving in Venice and finale closing in Turkey.
But again, DB proved himself, that he could write something interesting (well interesting was the understatement) and blend it well with the real fact. This book brought the ordinary (in term of art, history and the major issues of our world for commoner like me) into the extraordinary fiction that left me deep in thinking.

Another well-written fiction!

Siam Paragon, Siam Ocean World, Kidzania - Bangkok

In front of the Canal...inside Siam Paragon

Wifi corner with mobile charger provided...fancy spot

The Madame Tussauds

Siam Paragon was the only mall that we visited often during our stay in Bangkok, beside the 5mins walk Central mall. It was close, 1 BTS station only (B60 for 4 of us but only costed us B40 using tuktuk). It was one of the must-visit-place in Bangkok for shopaholic since the area had lots of big malls standing next to another, like Siam Discovery, Central World, and Siam Square. So if you are using BTS, please prepare yourself for the rush of people in and out the station. It was super duper crowded station!

The bustling foodcourt

Oh...what a lovely dishes   :-)

...mouth watering...

 Anyway, though we were surrounded by malls, we went there not for shopping spree (┐('⌣'┐)...уєαн... (┌'⌣')┌, it hosted numerous branded shops that could make you go thin on the wallet and reaching the upper limit of your credit card...but we just loved the food court. It offered various options for appetizer, main dishes, dessert and snack. You could choose from Thai's food, Asian fast food, Japanese ramen and sushi, Indian curry, and many more. If you fancy some high-end eatery and delicacies, Siam Paragon also had it all. But we just liked the food court since we could try many different kind of dishes affordably. And watching the bustling food court was so much fun than sitting on a quiet corner of a fancy cafe/resto.

My all-time fav for dessert

Bookstore @Siam...a heaven on earth for me

 Another reason why we could spend days here because it has Siam Ocean World (www.siamoceanworld.com) on its basement. Claimed to be the biggest aquarium in South East Asia, it had 5D show, ocean walker, glass bottom boat, fish spa for feet, numerous feeding and live interaction within the aquarium. it had 7 zones of wonder where we could explore the rich and diverse oceanic life. The 5D show of 20k leagues under the sea had too many obvious and predictable scenes. We liked the one at Bandung Transtudio better.

One of the feeding show

Ready to feed some fish on glass bottom boat

Complimentary fish spa

Then it also had Maddame Tussauds' wax museum but we didn't visit it this time. We thought the wax museum was pretty much the same with other cities. But I would like to recommend you to the Kidzania on the 5th floor. It was more pricey compared to Kidzania Jakarta, the ticket for toddler is B300, B650 for kids between 4 to 14 years old, B400 for adult and B350 for senior citizen. Newly opened for 2months, Kidzania Bangkok (www.kidzania.co.th) offered something that we didn't have it here, like sushi making, interior design, vet role playing and many more. Though the staff had language barrier, they welcomed my girls warmly and paid them more attention compared to toward the Thais and my girls enjoy their day there.

Sushi making

Banking with CIMB Siam

Do I need to say for this one too   :-)

 So regardless what your preference, Siam Paragon is one stop entertainment place for the whole family :-)