But then again...

Have any of you read the articles by Mary Schneider? (I think I spelled that right...I'm too lazy to walk downstairs and grab the newspaper again) I believe her articles are published every Monday in The Star under the title "But Then Again" with a cartoonish drawing of a woman's face with short hair. Anyway, I love her stories. It's a combination of life details with a twist of wit and light sarcasm. I've been reading her stories almost every week and just today, I found out that she actually stays in Penang. That's cool...not that it changes anything, duh! It's just cool to know that someone who writes such funny and meaningful stories is living in the same island. What a small world..

Dinner at Lone Pine Hotel

Last night, I had dinner with my family at Lone Pine Hotel in Batu Ferringhi. This hotel is now owned by E&O and the surrounding area and beach front looks quite pleasant. We had dinner at the restaurant called Bungalow as shown in the photo. It is a regular hotel coffee house, not over the top and pretty casual. It has an outside terrace facing the sea where you can choose to sit there for your meals and listen to the waves or to sit inside where it's air-conditioned. The food is a mix of western and local hainanese style dishes. The satay was mouth-wateringly delicious and the meat was so tender. And I also ordered the Ground Beef Burger. Excellent..I loved it. It's not too big and taste just right although the beef looked slight burnt, but taste was nice. I loved it. We also order a very common Hainan dish..the macaroni pie as well as Inche Kabin (fried chicken) which was tasty also and fit for 2 or 3 people. Price is not as cheap as road side shops of course but not too expensive either for a hotel. Somewhere between 10s and 20s. It's not a 5-star hotel that's for sure.

Humid day and a dose of Tony Bennett

Today is such a hot day. I spend 5 days a week in the office and 2 days at home in the heat is so torturing. Sleep, I sweat. Eat, I sweat. Just sitting there under the fan, I still sweat. So humid..my gosh. I miss the californian cool breeze. Although it was just a 2-week stint there but the weather was inviting. I didn't have much planned out today. Ding is down with the red-eye and I hope he gets well soon as he's been telling me how uncomfortable the feeling is..the itchiness and the pain. I spent a couple of hours today reading a book my dad bought for me a while back entitled "Global Future.." Something about the future of Asian companies and globalization. I'm reading it real slow. There are new bombastic words in there which I would love to learn up and I keep referring to the dictionary when I come across those words..which kinda slows down my reading. I quite like some phrases they used to describe things like China being the "factory of the world" and India being "the world's back-office". Nice stuff.

Besides that, I was also listening to Tony Bennett's Duets album. It's got a jazzy, swingy and classical feel to it. Quite soothing to listen to and if I just shut out all the noise and fully focus on the melody and the voices...I think I do quite enjoy the style. It features quite a number of people such as Michael Buble, Diana Krall, Stevie Wonder, Tim McGraw and many more. Personal favourites in that album are Cold Cold Heart, Smile, For Once In My Life, I Left My Heart In San Francisco, Because of You. I haven't listened to the rest. I read from somewhere that this album was recorded live in the studio with all the band, guest artiste and stuff.

Top 10 of the quarter

Here are the Top 10 songs that I've been absolutely hooked on for the past 3 months. These are the songs that I play on my iPod or in my car..night and day, day and night. I just can't get enough of them!

In no particular order:

01. Coldplay - The Scientist. I first heard this song in the movie Wicker Park starring Diane Kruger and Josh Hartnett, a story about love, obsession, destruction, deceit and finally, truth. This song came on at the last part of the show in the scene at the airport where Diane and Josh's characters reunited...it was absolutely touching and I got so reverberating hooked on the song after that.

02. Carrie Underwood - I Ain't In Checotah Anymore. Carrie, no doubt the best American Idol winner in my opinion. Her debut album is two-thumbs-up, and been listening to it for the past year or so. It is still alternating between the Top 3 of the country chart for like months and months? Fantastic. Well this song, I never really liked it before but after listening to it a number of times, I got really hooked. The chorus which goes "I'm in a world so wide, it makes me feel small sometimes.." is my favourite part of the song.

03. John Mayer - Vultures. What can I say? It's the great John Mayer. Absolute genius. Loved everything about the song from the lyrics to the introduction to the chorus to the weird sounding high notes.

04. Jewel - Goodbye Alice In Wonderland. This talented singer-songwriter is one of my favourites. I have her original debut album. Not all songs in there would top the charts but each one of the songs has got some infectious uniqueness about it that makes me want to listen over and over. This song is from her latest album of the same name.

05. Chantal Kreviazuk - Feels Like Home. This song was recommended to me by a friend and I got caught in the song's smooth melodic feel from the word go. Hey Soon Yee, I think you'll like this one.

06. Mika - Relax. One heck of a catchy song. Something to bob your head to in the car. Makes a pretty good ringtone too! :)

07. Michael Buble - The Way You Look Tonight. Oh man...he makes me swoon and sigh with delight. I love this version of the song. It's very slow..very soft..very romantic. Now if I knew how to slow dance, this would be perfect. Unfortunately I feel like I've got 2 left feet.

08. John Legend - Coming Home. Nearly all the songs in my list are slow songs. That's the style of music that lives through times. This is another one that will live through good and bad times. A meaningful one. I first heard it when he performed it live on the Grammy's together with John Mayer and Corrine Bailey Rae.

09. Diana Ross - I'm Still Waiting. This is an old song. I was listening to her greatest hits collection cd which I found covered with dust in my cupboard. The lyrics tells such a sad story. One thing about these old songs, the lyrics are like storybooks unveiling the story from the start of the song to a closure at the end.

10. Justin Timberlake - What's Goes Around, Comes Around. All about karma. I guess it makes a good song. I love the beats and I can't hide the fact that I think Justin is hot ok!

Those are the Top 10 songs for the quarter. Anybody got any Top 10 songs that you are so infatuated with?