libena!

Robina just fixed up another batch of Ribena cocktail. her secret recipe is a dash of the sweet dessert strawberry wine we brought back from the Italian farm last weekend. incidentally, Ribena is not available here in Beijing! we had to specially look for the plastic bottle packaging and lug it back to Beijing. all these effort to satisfy the occasional Ribena craving. but I tell you that it's worth it especially during hot summer days coming soon.

on the subject of moonshine, Robina enjoyed a special lychee apetirif concocted by the chef at a Japanese restaurant here. We thought that they used lychees with soda and sake.

btw, lychees are in season now in Beijing. actually, they are in season in South China and shipped here. you can get super sweet lychees, the variety with super small seeds for about S$3 per kilo.

up against the wall

making full use of the pleasant weather, we made a day trip to the Great Wall at Mutianyu on the outskirts of Beijing. It was misty at the Great Wall which made for a slightly different atmosphere up there when you view the wall disppearing into the distant hills and ridge line. we trudged along the wall from one fortification to another, pausing to catch our breath in the towers.


spotted a skink or lizard sunning itself on the battlements. While I was to trying to snap a pic in macro mode, the reptile gobbled down a dead fly!


lunch was at one of the numerous farm-style eateries along the way to the Great Wall. the specialty in this area is the rainbow trout. We enjoyed the grilled trout and sashimi trout; dirt cheap by S'pore standards at less than $5 per kilo. turns out our favourite dish was the simple omelette, we even ordered a second portion! the eggs by the local free-range kampong chicken was so delicious!

yummy grilled trout!

Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?

finally downloaded the first installment of IMPS. It's a big file (208.4Mb) but it's worth it

Kevin Rubio has outdid himself! if TROOPS was a parody of COPS, then IMPS (Imperial Military Personnel Stories) is akin to Discovery documentaries like Aircraft Carriers. The second part of Chapter 1 follows a stormtrooper squad, AK52278 on patrol. To me it's like a send up of US forces in "I-rack". Like TROOPS, IMPS is totally un-PC. altho you don see jawas being "wasted", other "atrocities" can be seen. Just a clue (not to spoil your viewing pleasure), watch out for the "illegal poaching" sequence where another major scifi movie franchise was being made fun of ("here's your frisbee back.."). The ending is hilarious and tongue in cheek. The FX animation and miniatures are way-cool! I love the closeups of AT-AT and AT-ST. the AT-AT pilot and scout troopers are cooool!!!

lost...

astonishing news reports from Southern Philippines suggested that there may yet be Japanese soldiers hiding out in the forests there! As of now, Japanese diplomats were still trying to establish contact with the two men, who should be in their eighties.

I remembered the relics of the Pacific War that I had seen in Palau; submerged Zero planes, wrecked landing crafts, pillboxes, helmets, empty cartridges and sakae bottles. Palau was the scene of terrible fighting when the US marines landed.

pesto and proscuito pizza

it was a glorious sunny Saturday! we headed down to Italian Farm (no kidding, it's a farm and restaurant runned by bona fide Italian and his Chinese wife). Amongst the apple trees, we had excellent pizza and pasta, washed down with home-made raspberry wine! salut!

many Beijinger families were having a day out as well in the open areas at the farm. Several dogs were there and Sally had a fun time scampering around with other pooches.

Sarah, Sally and Robina

next we headed down to another called the "Apple Orchard" for a cool drink and savour the pleasant landscaping there. sitting in the outdoor area next to the pond, the view reminded us more of Australia than of Beijing!

outing to western Beijing

we went on a day trip to scenic spots on outskirts of Beijing. the weather was excellent and the sunshine and fresh air was an refreshing change to Beijing city life.

One of the spots we visited was an ancient hillside village that retained the architecture or late Ming and early Qing dynasty. The founders of the village were basically "shanghai-ed" from their native Shanxi to repopulate the devastated northern China! Although their present day descendents had turned entrepreneurs to attract domestic tourists and would be preserving the village for tourist dollars, I'm sure historians and architects would be aghast at the makeshift resoration or conservation by the locals using modern materials like concrete and bricks. but I guess it's either that or letting the village go the way of hutongs in Beijing, being bulldozed for progress.

The other attraction was Shuanglongxia. Part of the river was dammed up to provide water supply. But trails leading up the river gorge who bring visitors to many ponds and two waterfalls with poetic and fairyland names. typical of many Chinese tourist attractions, tacky "modern" buildings were erected and BBQ stands selling grilled fish marred the landscape. thankfully enough of the natural landscape remained...

Star Wars in Beijing

finally caught SW3: ROTS last night. It was my first big screen experience in Beijing. went to a cineplex in Oriental Plaza, a spankingly modern shopping mall like our Taka or Suntec. put on my own Star Wars t-shirt and paid RMB60 (or about S$12) for each ticket. but first, I must make sure that the screening was in english since some screenings are dubbed in Chinese (horrors!).

***spoilers warning***

I thot this round-up episode was much better that the two previous ones, at least no prolong screen time for Jar Jar Binks (Robina differs tho). Lucas managed to tie up all the loose ends that leads up to SW4: A new hope. The opening star fighter sequence was breath-taking but still could not match up to the stone-aged special effects of the 1977 trench attack on the death star or the evolving ROTJ attack on the second death star. you can spot the design siimilarities in the Republic star fighters with TIE fighters, the Republic Cruisers and the Imperial Star Destroyers, the "early" version of X-wing. R2 kicked some droid asses, which went down well with Robina. I liked the glimpse of Kashyyk, the Wookies and Chewbacca. I think Lucas copped out on a forest battle (Kashyyk is supposed to be a forest planet) and settled for a lake battle. the final scene was well done and was similar to Luke's scene in the same setting ANH.

***spoilers cleared***

suffering from withdrawal or the prospects of no more Star Wars henceforth? don worry, there are fan films that can cure that!

some are positively hilarious and highly creative. my favourite is TROOPS, all hail Kevin Rubio. If you haven't seen it before, it's like COPS and the theme song is infectious. but it's totally un-PC with stormtroopers blasting jawas and civilians "all suspects are guilty, otherwise they wouldn't be suspects..." Kevin is coming up with a sequel...

check out a spoof of the ROTS trailer. "Pink 5" is another hilarious fan film, a 90210 bimbo takes on the death star with other rebel x-wings while complaining about helmet hair and chatting up Han Solo on the intercom. What do SW fans do when the projector chonks out in the theatre? it's a highly refreshing and creative tribute to all SW fans. What if Boba Fett was like Steve Irwin the Croc Hunter? crikey!

A simple idea but very funny nonetheless: Cheap Seats. "Sith apprentice" is a solid spoof on Donald Trump's The Apprentice. I liked the part when Jar Jar was "fired".

hic!

Robina came to me complaining of hiccups. but she has already drank a lot of water. how now? I taught her the only trick I knew: touch your soft palate (roof of your mouth close to the back of your throat) with your tongue, hold for a few seconds. apparently, it works (don ask me why).

here's a laundry list of cures (some quite outlandish...)

roast lamb version 2.0

tried a slight variation for the roast leg of lamb today. I used a lot of fresh rosemary, it's pleasant aroma was really shiok during the preparation, cooking and the eating! apart from stuffing slivers of garlic into the lamb, I also did the same with sprigs of rosemary. the lamb leg was roasted on a bed of rosemary on the rack. like before, I braised some veges (onions, garlic, shallots, carrots, tomatoes, mushrooms and fennel bulbs) below the lamb in white wine.



Sally keeled over while waiting for the lamb to cook. she got a dinner of lamb and rice for her troubles, with a leg bone kept for her to chew.



P.S: someone else with a quick draw on the oven.