Month: August 2006

Weekend Rundown!

So, what have we got?

– BBQ – soo much meat. I don’t think I’ve eaten that much meat. Bee-yoo-ti-ful weather. A nice subway ride to the Bronx (passing by Yankee Stadium, I realized that I really do go to that many more Met games; I really so don’t make trips to the Bronx, so at least the annual picnic is an excuse to make a trek) – love how MTA makes it possible to have basically only one subway going out of my end of Brooklyn, and then only local all the way up. Eh. At least I got air conditioning and a seat and – seeing how the subway really does seem like the only place where I read books anymore, thus I am now more than halfway through In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote.

Oh, and by the way – the kal bi – great marinade. Bit rare for my preference (I like my meat well-done), but still tasty. The hamburger, the chicken-turkey burger, the hot dog — okay, I had more than my fair share of protein. Thanks again for the ride back to Bklyn, FC and P – and you two really did a great job with the food!

A great lyrical and enlightening summer read, which I finished this weekend – The Planets by Dava Sobel. If you’re into planets, as I have been, this is a highly recommended book.

Finally watched “A Fish Called Wanda” off of my tapes – not nearly as laugh-out-loud-funny as I had long hoped, but very entertaining nonetheless, as the plot twists are absolutely head-spinning. George “leads” a band of theives; Ken (fantastically played by ex-Monty-Python Michael Palin) is the stutterer/animal lover thief; Wanda (played by Jamie Lee Curtis) is George’s girlfriend/thief; Otto (played by Kevin Kline) is ex-CIA (who’s too stupid to actually be ex-CIA, but eh…) and joins the band as “Wanda’s brother” (uh-huh, sure); and Archie Leach (great name! coincidentally – or not?! – Cary Grant’s real name; Leach the character is played by fellow-Monty-Python John Cleese) is George’s barrister, who also falls for Wanda – and ah, that Wanda – she manages to wrap all the men in her fingers…

Personally, I really enjoyed Palin – never realized that he was this good a comedic actor (ok, basically I’ve only seen some of the Monty Python stuff and his trips around the world documentaries, so what do I really know?). Cleese is always consistent. The movie pretty much stands up to the test of time, and well, gee, there really is a difference in how British lawyers and American lawyers practice law… Well, whether this will be a keeper in the SSW collection remains to be seen…

4 Airline hop skip and jump

CI, SQ, PK, MH, includes a 6 hour layover in KLIA. The final destination is Islamabad. Amazing how many flight permutations there are to get there. Some go through Dubai and double back (!!! :-o). Some via Beijing. There’s a direct from Tokyo via TK. No one goes back via how they came. Amazing stuff. It makes me think that I can nail Amazing Race if given the chance. Wonder how one can sign up for it…. There’s a prize right?

Hope you folks had a good picnic and with more comfortable weather. Summer there hasn’t been so bad but then, I’m back in A/C environs with a typical corporate desk job.

Last trip back from Malaysia was good. I stayed at the KL Hilton for the conference instead of the Le Meridien. Good but I like Meridien better, more comfortable all around. We tried out their steak place called Prime which served all the traditional style cuts etc. They even had Australian Wagyu Beef which appears to be more common in some of the high end steak places in Asia. Friday night at a friend’s farewell to Taiwan party, we went to Robin’s Grill which also had it but at extremely pricey pricey prices :-o. I’ll have to go back and do the Wagyu beef at some point in time with some Joseph Phelps “Le Mistral”, a fabulous fabulous fabulous red. I think even better than the Duckhorn that I’ve had in the past.
Good food… that’s what’s important. Now just missing the good friends in Asia to join me in this passion!