Beyond Evil

I just watched Beyond Evil. It has an intriguing plot, with secrets from years ago resurfacing one by one. The beginning and ending of every episode seems to have been perfectly crafted. The endings aren't really cliffhangers, instead they are pretty forgettable; I find that I sometimes forget where the story ended. But the next episode, even if it doesn't start directly from the ending scene of the previous episode, manages to continue the story and remind you of what happened last.

But, something is lacking... The first four episodes had me completely hooked, with mysterious words from the characters hinting at interesting details being revealed later. But, after that, the characters seemed to keep continuing beating about the bush a little too much, constantly speaking empty words just to show their bravado, so the story became a bit draggy at times.

Every episode still managed to have new happenings and revelations, so it wasn't bad... but this holds it back from holding my interest from beginning to end. At some points, I was thinking, "Would you get along with it already?!"

The characters also seem to do some silly stuff here and there, things that make no sense to me. And there is one huge point that seems unexplained (Why display the fingers there? I'm annoyed about that not being clarified.)

It's still good enough, if you like mystery. Just not so good that I would specially recommend it.

Special mention: The youngest cop was extremely cute in his role. The butcher lady was extremely pretty too, and I liked her facial expressions. Looks like they are new actors...with these looks, I think they're gonna make it in the industry. :P

Another mention: I've see Shin Ha Kyun in three dramas so far, all three are pretty good in the mystery/thriller genre. (previous ones were Less Than Evil and Pied Piper)

Chinese New Year at Kek Lok Si

Welcome to TeddyVille Museum’s CNY open house!

Well, not really...those are not real doors.

There are even bear lion dancers!

I took a selfie with the bear at the back.

The bears also have Kek Lok Si!

See the bear inside ringing the bell?

The level of detail is amazing… with the row of statues… and the bears taking photos with their iPhones!

There are even bear monks at each temple!

A stone among the pebbles

This week's theme was stone. I completely forgot about it! 

When I first saw the theme, I immediately thought of the smooth stones that I had on my porch, but I was hoping to find something better. Since I forgot and didn't look for any other stone, I went to snap a photo of one of these stones, wondering how I could make the photo more unique.

And I found a stone amidst the smooth pebbles!

(I had moved the stone a bit...)

There had been some piping works being done this week, and it seems like somehow an "outsider" stone managed to find its way here during that time. Together with a small piece of plastic (the red piece).

A Malay kampung planning for festivities

What’s this? A traditional pondok!

I took a photo with P. Ramlee in his house! :P

In case you don’t know who P. Ramlee is…

There are more bears living in P. Ramlee’s village:

The full scene:

(P. Ramlee is of course not really in that scene…)

The exploration

Today, we explore an area where no human has been before!

The usual inhabitants are lizards, but luckily we didn't run into any.

Beefy burger

I tried Jom Burgeria again, this time opting for a beef patty.

This one was better, maybe because the sauce was not overflowing. So it was less salty. and also, there is lettuce and tomato to balance out the meaty flavours!

This burger is called "beef tower". My friend actually recommended "raging bull" which has chilli beef on the patty, but I chose this instead after seeing that the photo of "raging bull" did not have vegetables in it. :P As for the chicken burger that I had ordered previously, it was no longer on the menu... that was probably a bad choice on my part; I guess it is not that popular!

However, as for the texture of the meat patty, I think I prefer the chicken patty. Next time, I will look for a chicken flavour that has veggies in it. (My friend recommended "salted egg chick"...I will still have the check whether it comes with greens!)

The surprising gift

Tesco (now Lotus's) has a Scan & Shop app which allows us to scan our own groceries when picking them out, and then the cashier would simply scan our final bar code with the total, instead of scanning our purchases one by one.

I have used it before, and today I used it again. After checking me out, the cashier took out a packet of chopsticks, and handed me a pair. She started saying, "Guna...", and I was wondering what kind of new Covid measure was to give us chopsticks to do something. (I thought they were disposable chopsticks) Then she finished her sentence: "Guna Scan & Shop dapat free gift." And she took out a box and handed me a bowl. (The box was a set of four bowls.)

I like the bowl, it's pretty! The chopsticks still look practically disposable to me, but I guess it's not meant to be single-use.

So the next time I go to Tesco/Lotus's, I shall use Scan & Shop, even if I'm buying one single thing. Who knows, I might get another bowl. :P

A mysterious packet

I ordered a duck confit for takeaway at What The Duck. It was packed in a bento box.

When I saw the sauce packet beside the salad, I thought, "Good, they are letting us pour the salad sauce only when we want to eat it!"

But when I was pouring the sauce onto the salad, I felt that it was thick, not like usual vinaigrette. Tasting it a bit, I realized that it was actually the sauce for the duck! (see my previous post linked above...it is actually the longan sauce that comes with the duck confit)

Luckily I was pouring the sauce on the side of the salad (at the spot where the sauce packet was), because sometimes I don't like having too much vinaigrette on my salad and it would allow me to mix in less if I preferred. So I could scrape out most of it (the sauce is thick, so it didn't really flow anywhere) into a sauce plate instead, and have it properly with my duck.

I wonder what happens to those who have never ordered this dish before! They might use it as a "strange salad sauce".

Note: All the side dishes that you can see in the previous post, under the duck, was still under the duck in this bento box. But of course it didn't look as good as on the plate, since everything was packed tightly into that compartment. And you can see the three pieces of confit garlic at the top of the photo, beside the duck. (just to say that, everything on the plate really made its way into that box!)

Bears celebrate Thaipusam too

Thaipusam has its own dedicated room in the TeddyVille Museum… with one huge bear carrying a kavadi!

And here’s the scene, with lots of bears celebrating!

There's even a bear in the temple...

...and lots of coconuts!

The coconuts were placed in such a way that I didn’t get more than a basket in each photo. I wonder whether there were any other baskets of coconuts that I missed!

And of course, there was the explanatory text as well.

Getting rusty

Not talking about me!

Instead, this is literal.

I am glad to say that I could not easily find rust around to take a photo of. :P