My Poem

Just before Georgie left to go back to the army, he wrote me a touching poem.

Somehow when you look into my eyes,
Tenderness melts my heart like chocolate meets wine,
Even we don't share a lifetime together,
Venus in the dark will guide us towards each other,
Eventually we cam across the light year.

Some say love is blind though i don't deny,
Loving you makes me see for the first time,
Our journey has just begun but I'm certain,
As long as we keep our faith in this circle of fountain,
Next stop is where we've always longed to be.

Grammy's 2009

Record of the Year: Robert Plant and Alison Krauss 'Please Read The Letter'
Album of the Year: Robert Plant and Alison Krauss 'Raising Sands'
Song of the Year: Coldplay 'Viva La Vida'
Best New Artist: Adele
Best Female Pop Performance: Adele 'Chasing Pavements'
Best Male Pop Performance: John Mayer 'Say'
Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals: Coldplay 'Viva La Vida'
Best Dance Record: Daft Punk 'Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger'
Best electronic/dance album: Daft Punk: 'Alive 2007'
Best solo rock vocal performance: John Mayer 'Gravity'
Best rock performance by a duo or group with vocals: Kings of Leon 'Sex on Fire'
Best rock song: Bruce Springsteen 'Girls In Their Summer Clothes'
Best rock album: Coldplay 'Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends'
Best alternative music album: Radiohead 'In Rainbows'
Best female R&B vocal performance: Alicia Keys 'Superwoman'
Best male R&B vocal performance: Ne-Yo 'Miss Independent'
Best R&B performance by a duo or group with vocals: Al Green ft John Legend 'Stay With Me (By The Sea)'
Best R&B song: Ne-Yo 'Miss Independent'
Best R&B album: Jennifer Hudson 'Jennifer Hudson'
Best rap solo performance: Lil' Wayne 'A Milli'
Best rap performance by a duo or group: Jay-Z and TI ft Kanye West and Lil Wayne 'Swagga Like Us'
Best rap/sung collaboration: Estelle ft Kanye West 'American Boy'Best rap album: Lil' Wayne 'Tha Carter III'

It was a great outcome for British artists and rightly so. Adele, Coldplay, Radiohead, Estelle, Duffy all picked up awards. So happy that the best album of 2007, in my opinion, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Raising Sand landed five prestigious awards.

Some of the performances were truly amazing. Coldplay and Radioheads performances were both proof that they are probably two of the best live bands around. Radiohead rolled out an entire marching band for a bombastic rendition of 25 steps. The legend that is Paul McCartney also put in, as usual, a fantastic performance and David Grohl backing on drums gave him a more rocky edgier side.

Also great to see Al Green back in the music industry and singing as good as ever, his duet with Justin Timberlake was great and an added bonus to see him. You've gotta love JT! A whole lot better than the act it replaced, Rhianna!

Stevie Wonder and the Jonas Brothers! What the hell? Stevie would have done better on his own, yet his majestic songs pulled the train wreck that is the Jonas Brothers along with him to actually pull off a half decent performance.

One of the highlights was the great Neil Diamond showing that the Grammys doesn't take itself so seriously all of the time allowing him to perform the ultimate cheese fest song 'Sweet Caroline'. Watch the crooner swagger around the stage was amazing, loved it!

San Yut Sen Lantern Festival

Richard and I attended the Lantern Festival at San Yut Sen Memorial Hall on Friday evening to revel in the lanterns on offer this year. As anticipated, lots of cows and pandas. It was a much smaller affair than i expected but pretty good to see nonetheless. Here are a taster of some of the lanterns displayed this year, the rest can be found in my photo album attatched to this blog.

Bafta Film Awards 2009: The winners

Best Film: Slumdog Millionaire
Best British Film: Man on Wire
Leading Actor: Mickey Rourke 'The Wrestler'
Leading Actress: Kate Winslet 'The Reader'
Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger 'The Dark Knight'
Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona'
Director: Danny Boyle 'Slumdog Millionaire'
Original Screenplay: In Bruges Martin McDonagh
Adapted Screenplay: Slumdog Millionaire Simon Beaufoy
Film not in English Language: I've Loved You So Long
Animated Film: Wall-E
Director, writer, producer of first film: Hunger Steve McQueen
Music: Slumdog Millionaire AR Rahman
Cinematography: Slumdog Millionaire
Editing: Slumdog Millionaire
Production Design: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Costume Design: The Duchess
Sound: Slumdog Millionaire
Special Visual Effects: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Make-up and Hair: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Short Animation: Wallace and Gromit A Matter Of Loaf and Deaf
Short Film: September
Rising Star Award: Noel Clarke

Lantern Festival in Pingshi

After endless teaching of the lantern festival in Pingshi without ever visiting the place i thought it was finally time to make a journey to the place that i seem to know so much about. I was reluctant to go as i knew it would be really crowded and it was raining but what the hell, nothing better to do and as it's a highly regarded internationally festival i though it was worth braving the effort, and so did Lester and Jay. After a 30 minute bus ride from Taipei zoo, standing, we arrived. Avoiding the crowds was not an option, you had to just throw yourself in there. We opted for lunch first then bought our lantern and began the task of writing our wishes on the lantern. We shared one between the three of us so Jay started his wishes on one side, followed by Lester and then me. The final side of the lantern was reserved for a wish for family and friends. My wishes were; firstly, health and happiness to all friends and family, secondly, Steve and George love each other for ever, thirdly, we both find good jobs wherever we will be, and finally, George's time in the army passes by smoothly and quickly for him so we can be together.

Luckily despite the hard rain and lanterns plummeting from the sky all around us ours went straight up into the sky without a hitch and flew away high into the sky. It was quite a sight to see all of the lanterns flying up, it was beautiful and quite touching. The fact that we were surrounded my the mystic foggy mountains and beautiful countryside scenery made it all the more special. A great experience, I'm glad i braved the weather to do it.

Chinese New Year 2009

Chinese New Year 2009 was initially going to be a travel expedition around Taiwan to nowhere in particular as Georgie was suppose to be in the army and the last thing I wanted was to remain in Taipei with nobody else here at all. However, I received good news that George would be back for the whole holidays which was a great surprise. He arrived back on the Saturday and was great to catch up and see him again as I obviously missed him tons. So we just stayed in Saturday evening and took it easy. Sunday was Chinese New Years Eve, we met up with one of Georges’ friends, known as George2, who is visiting from the Netherlands. We saw the movie Red Cliff 2 which was pretty good then it was off for New Years dinner with George’s dad and friends, a pleasant evening of more food and drink than was entirely necessary but still great. On Tuesday we headed to ChiaYi to spend some time with George’s grandparents and mum. Highlights of the trip were a trip to a local style car and dinner with Georgie’s mum. On Thursday we headed to Taichung and after an obscene 2 and half hour bus ride from ChiaYi to Taichung we arrived for a night of Bollywoods and KTV, good fun all round. Then it was back to Taipei via the High Speed Rail for dinner with George’s classmates at Tasty’s and Hong Lou for some drinks after. On Saturday we saw two Taiwanese movies, Cape No:7 and ORZ Boys then it was off to Carnegies for a great dinner and dancing along with Nell, Andrew, and Richard. The end of the holidays, Sunday, saw yet another movie, Madagascar2 followed by bands at Hong Lou and Alleycats pizza with friends. To most it would probably not seem like much; but for me, I would rather have done this with George than been anywhere else. Therefore, it was a pretty good Chinese New Year.