30 December 2021

《琅琊榜之风起长林》电视剧 - 观后感

今年由于疫情的缘故,比往年更时常呆在家里,又对韩剧觉得比较厌烦,就开始找多一些中文剧来看。

2015年播出的 《琅琊榜》已看了几遍我自己都算不清楚(连我的女儿都看了不少过五遍)。我便开始找第二部 《琅琊榜之风起长林》。第二部《琅琊榜之风起长林》(我是指电视剧的故事)虽没有第一部来得精彩,但是还是有一定的颜值。

   



我本人比较喜欢的几个地方: 

1. 仍有不少的武打场面
以《琅琊榜》为名的剧情怎么能少得了琅琊高手呢?武打场面还是蛮不错,尤其是萧平旌,荀飞盏的戏份。只是看完了还是有些地方觉得好奇:

一,荀飞盏既然是前朝禁军大统领蒙挚关门弟子,为何武功看似比较花俏,总是持剑,不像蒙挚那种 “少林俗家弟子,身负大力金刚功” 的 强硬大纲的风格呢?撇开他以禁军统领的身份持剑对敌吧。他在城外搭救平旌时对抗段桐舟,或者再后来在琅琊山上与平旌一教高下,每次都是用剑。 记忆里只有一场(在金陵)当街与萧平旌打架时,才单单以赤拳对打。

二,萧平旌在琅琊山上学艺,武功是跟谁学的?(电视剧中并没有交代,等我读完原著再看有没有解答)

三,蔺晨(第二部里的琅琊阁老阁主)继承琅琊阁后,为何会决定改动琅琊榜的入榜资格,凡介入朝局或领有朝职者将除名?(电视剧里没有明确地交代,且等我看完原著后来又没有提。)


2. 多了一些儿女情长的戏份
第一部《琅琊榜》电视剧虽然把穆霓凰和林殊年少时的婚约与爱慕感情改编的与原著小说不一样, 可是还是从头到尾只注重林殊为赤焰军翻案的大义主题。主角(梅长苏)和其他角色(萧景琰,萧景睿,谢弼)都没多少感情戏(剧里并没有带进谢弼与天泉山庄的亲事)。

第二部反而把每一位高手、主角都加了恋爱对象;萧平旌与林奚的 “父母之命”却也 “自然恋爱”, 萧平章与蒙浅雪的 “青梅竹马,世世代代都要做夫妻“。连大反派萧元启也似乎对荀安如动了真感情,莫要说荀飞盏对蒙浅雪的单恋。

平旌与林奚的感情戏随从头到尾都有,可是又不像一些无聊的电视剧,随着 ‘男见女-喜欢对方-相爱求婚-结婚生子’ 的步伐。 林奚虽然看似是个弱女子,可是还懂一些武功,可以独当一面担任济风堂少堂主,而且志在四方,自小立志学习神农氏尝遍百草、编写药谱。并向平旌表示:“我的心会等着你,但我的脚步不会为你停留。”

相反的,因为不同环境与原故,武艺高强的蒙浅雪却因从小收养于长林王妃身边,年少时由皇帝赐婚,成为长林府的世子妃。我总觉得林溪在认识世子妃和平旌后,一定不肯透露自己的身份,因为她不想被困在王府的“牢笼“ 里。


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简单说了喜欢的部分,现在提一下我本人不喜欢的部分

(无聊的)宫廷斗争
因为第二部宫廷里的反派真的描的太笨了。真不敢相信景琰会为他的儿子(萧歆)选这么迷信又没脑的荀氏皇后(这点应该是因为改编成电视剧的问题,有些细节没有办法完整的交代)小说里第九章有解释荀氏一族的来历,并交代武靖帝(萧景琰)对荀白水之父的恩信, 所以当时才会立荀白水之妹为东宫的太子妃。

墨淄侯
我应该说什么呢。。。鼎鼎大名的琅玡榜第一高手出手时,绝大部分就只是CG跳来跳去。。

好了,暂时就写到这。。。最近忙着工作 (年底到了,会计方面的好多事情还没做)没有这样多时间慢慢地阅读原著。等到农历新年到了才有比较多时间赶上阅读进度(我只读到第23章)

01 October 2021

Hotel Del Luna (Youtube playlist from TvN)

One of the dramas that I can't help but re-watch. 아직도 델루나 앓이 중이라면 [#다시보는호텔델루나]

03 July 2021

"Iceland in Three Meals" Youtube playlist

One of my favourite Korean variety ensemble cast, ever since I started watching them in Two Days One Night.

01 June 2021

《长歌行》漫画

 我看完了电视剧才开始看原著的漫画。我便拜托姐姐在淘宝帮我买全套漫画书籍,也在网上搜索动漫的视频。


29 May 2021

Air fryer pork ribs

We had this takeaway pork ribs from Pura Brasa last week to celebrate our wedding anniversary at home ( thanks to Phase 2 HA restrictions!!) 

I wanted to try to prepare a homemade version as Y loves her meats (her latest addition to her nickname list is "Miss meaty"). I didn't want to have to burn a big hole in my pocket to feed her carnivorous cravings. 

So I got this lovely slab of pork ribs from the wet market at Chinatown. This hit the weighing scale at close to 900+ grams (approx 2 pounds?), and costs $23/kg. 

The uncle at the stall suggested that I precook the meat before putting it into the oven to roast/BBQ, to avoid drying out the meat. So here it is, in my WMF stainless steel pot on a trivet,ready to be steamed.

I chose steaming rather than boil or parboil, so that the juices and flavour do not leech out into the boiling liquid. Besides, it's already so hot in the kitchen! In total, I steamed it for about 15 mins. It was fully cooked when I poked the meat with a chopstick, as the juices ran clear. 

I then rubbed on some store bought BBQ seasoning sauce and popped it into the air fryer for about 5-7 mins at 170 deg Celsius. I just eye-balled and flipped it over (for more even browning, aesthetics, really, since it was already fully cooked) and cranked up to 200 deg Celsius for a final burst for another 4mins. The BBQ smell was so enchanting and the fats sizzling and popping when I opened the airfryer. 


Here's a pic of the final product. 
Verdict: it looks better than it tastes. 
I think I overcooked it and the exterior bits of meat were super dry and tasted like jerky. Personally, I had the small loose piece of rib, which I cut off from the main slab so that it could fit into the airfryer. It was exposed to the convection heat in the airfryer and tasted dry and tasteless. I later had another rib from the middle section and it was much juicier and softer. 

By not marinating in advance, I set the stage for bland meat. The seasoning was only on the exposed parts of the meat. I can only shudder to imagine the quantity of seasoning used by restaurants to get that smoky, sweet, salty taste we get when dining out. I can only console myself that my version is healthier! 

This is a dish that I will definitely try again, not least because Y asked for more (her exact words were "mummy, can you cook this more often") , but also cos I have a bottle of BBQ seasoning dry rub to use up before SG's humidity ruins it. 

27 May 2021

《长歌行》电视剧

追看电视剧了过后,总觉得意犹未尽。

24 May 2021

A new wallet burn coming our way

24 May 2021 - Picture of our 11 year old (non-smart) TV. Somehow there was some liquid oozing out of those bubbles seen in the picture. So we removed it and hauled it to be disposed. 


16 May 2021

Full HBL announced 19May 2021 to end of Term 2

Just hours after my previous post, MOE announced new measures of full Home based learning for schools for the last 1.5 weeks of Term 2. 

Although it is no longer a new development (compared to last year's experience), it was still a development that came out of the blue, and with only 2 days notice, the entire school ecosystem will be in a scramble again for the hours and days ahead. 

Social media (Facebook, readers comments) were a flurry with the usual comments... Why in two days, why not immediately, what happens to segment A /B/C/D of the student population. Sometimes I don't know whether we don't learn from past experiences or we forget, or we just mentally refuse to accept the government's previously stated (usually logical and easy to understand) explanation. 

I only have 1 question unsolved for my own scenario. What happens to Y's mid year exam that was due to take place on Wed 19 May? 

Here we go again... Phase 2 (Heightened Alert) Starts 16 May 2021

 Just a post to mark another stay-at-home phase... what the government has termed "Phase 2 (Heightened Alert)".  Starting today, 16 May 2021, dining-in at all F&B outlets would be prohibited; permissible group sizes reduced from 5 to 2 etc etc.

As I went out to buy breakfast today, the streets and shops were significantly quieter. F&B establishments in the neighbourhood that were already operating then (8am in the heart of Singapore's CBD on a Sunday!) were already well-prepared. The usual dining tables and chairs were stacked neatly to one side of their premises; signages were up, next to the ubiquitous SafeEntry posters and temperature scanners at each shopfront. 

How about the supermarkets? I hadn't needed to make a grocery run to the supermarket since the announcement of this newest development on May 14, and neither did I bother to follow social media for photos and reports of what 'uncommon scenes' (i.e. long queues of kiasu customers) ensued as a result of the new restrictions. But the NTUC Fairprice supermarket was relatively quiet, just like any other Sunday morning. Perhaps we had already gotten used to the fact that this "roti-prata" way of relaxing-and-tightening-social-restrictions will be the new way of life, at least for now, for the upcoming many months ahead. Or maybe all the panic-buying and "just-one-last-visit-to-my favourite-bubble-tea-shop" chaos had ended without me realising. 

Thankfully, I happened to complete most of my weekly grocery-shopping at the wet market on Wed, just  days before the announcement. And since I always had my stash of frozen food, I had been cooking simple meals without having to replenish much. 

As I sat down at my computer to start this post, I was wondering "What will change?". Hopefully, I can learn from my mistakes from last year's Circuit-Breaker experience, not to let my guard down too much (and face a mountain of work-related backlog). It probably won't happen this time since my workplace isn't closed. I also made plans to really prepare more home-cooked meals this time round, rather than relying on the ready supply of instant food products and the yummilicious hawker food just nearby. 

I had also been trying to get Y to go out of the house more often (she was refusing to leave home except for school and weekly visits to grandparents') ever since we exited CB last year. And dangled some incentive carrot for her to do so, so I hope we will get down to doing some outdoor exercise (as a group of 2). Everything, anything to pry her away from her bed, mobile and computer playing Kpop idol music. haha. 


15 May 2021

Cushions and DIY cushion covers for MBR Bay Window


For years, we have left the Bay Window unused as it was quite exposed (without the DIY sheer curtains and blinds shown in the picture below). Preparing some padding for the space was on my "To Do" list for a while. 

So I bought some high density sponge cushions online during the 9.9 offers (it was too expensive to make to order in SG). The original seller couldnt fulfil the order, so I had to re-order from someone else and it took another 2 weeks to arrive. The cushions did not fit the space perfectly as the cushions were 50cm squares whereas the entire length was 158cm. I padded the end of the space (8cm) by folding a cardboard box. It cannot be seen in the picture as it was below the triangular pillow. 


The triangular support 'pillow cover' is actually just some scraps from previous projects, encasing an air pillow. I used a large plastic ziplock (i think it was those blankets storage bags from Daiso).  

To keep dust out and make it easier to clean, I machine-sewed a long cushion case to keep dust out of the crevices in-between the three cushions. Again, the fabric was from my stash, and I was so happy with the result of the first (the Christmas red) that I could not resist when I saw this cute cartoon print on sale at People's Park. So Taa-dah! I have two interchangeable covers.  


So on windy mornings or overcast afternoons, this is my little reading-cum-entertainment corner. 

08 March 2021

Fabrics for DIY cushion covers

Bought these fabrics at $6.50/m from Malin Textiles at People's Park Complex. 

Will follow up on completed project pictures when I have the time to finish sewing, wash and take photos. Haha. 

I think I just found a new way to de-stress (i.e. run away from other real life responsibilities). A way that doesn't involve anyone else. 

24 February 2021

homemade furikake

After using bonito flakes to cook dashi for our udon soup for lunch, I used them to make furikake. 

Firstly, sieve out the bonito flakes from your dashi pot and set them aside until cook enough to handle. Then chop (I roughly cut with kitchen scissors) them into smaller pieces. 
I then dried them on a nonstick saucepan on low heat until they separated and did not clump together anymore. It looked like the store-bought dried bonito flakes at this stage.

I then added some mirin and soy sauce (skipped sake as I didn't have any) and let the flakes absorb all that seasoning. After adding some white sesame seeds, it is done! 

According to the online recipe, it can be stored for a few days in the fridge. 

But I don't think it will last that long! The picture shows what was left after I stopped Y from finishing it all up as a snack topper. 

19 February 2021

lovingly handmade

Feel so blessed! Our dear sister Angie blessed us with her annual work of labour, handmade pineapple tarts. Meltingly sinful, so hard for me to stop reaching into the container. 

《声入人心》Super-Vocal——全新音乐类节目【全12期】


Parking the playlist here first

Youtube Playlists - 《我是歌手》 I AM A SINGER / 《歌手》

After all the past years of K-drama addiction, I got bored and watched more variety shows. But alas, my command of the language and eyesight deteriorated, so I was looking for entertainment where I didn't have to keep my eyes glued on the screen and follow the (sometimes poorly translated) subtitles. 

I got back to looking for Chinese language singing competitions which we watched occassionally on TV. And I am so glad that the (almost-complete) playlist were still around on the YT channel of the broadcaster.

第一季:2013

第二季:2014

第三季:2015

第四季:2016

《歌手》第一季:2017

《歌手》第二季:2018

《歌手》第三季:2019

《歌手》第四季:2020