I don't really know whether can I be consider as a fan of 'Pirates of The Caribbean' movies franchise... The reason for this is because I love the first installment... But I skip the second and the third installment... I can't remember the reason for that but I didn't watch both movies and I know 'Pirates of The Caribbean' franchise can be considered as one of the most successful around... Kinda weird huh for a movie freak like me!!!

But this doesn't stop me from watching the latest installment, 'On Stranger Tides'... So how's the movie??? I would rate it as a 'B+' or maybe a double plus... Definitely not in the 'A' category I'm afraid... The storyline is very predictable and very typical for a movie involving pirates... You can't run away from adventure and of course some mythical creatures... Mermaids to be precise... Besides 'Captain Jack Sparrow', mermaids are my favourite character in this movie (Just look at the movie poster that I posted!!!)... I don't have to explain why I love them because the answer is really simple... They are gorgeous with their lovely legs err I mean flippers and not forgetting their naked body!!! Ok I know I'm 'hamsap' but you can't blame me cause I'm straight... Ask any straight men and I can guarantee their answer will be the same as mine unless they are a BIG liar and a bloody hypocrite!!!

What about the other movie stars??? I don't care who they cast for the characters but 'Johnny Depp' must be a part of it... In my opinion, it is him alone who make the movie enjoyable... If they decided to take out 'Orlando Bloom' or 'Keira Knightly' or some other people I'm fine with it... As long as 'Johnny Depp' is in the movie, you can't go wrong with it...

I'm having headache for these pass few weeks all thanks to our beloved cars... 'FrankenBenz' and 'Puggy' are giving me lots of problems recently... First was 'Puggy' which decided to have a flat battery again... After that, 'FrankenBenz' decided to throw tantrums and causes lots of headache for me... Temperature and gearbox are the main problem... And yesterday, 'Puggy' decided to throw something BIG at me... I was driving the car and suddenly I felt that the car lost a lot of power and simultaneously an error code came out... 'Depollution System Failure'... WTF was that??? So we decided to stop the car and took out the service manual and started searching for the error code... But we can't find anything and I decided to call 'Peugeot Service Care Line' and they told us that we should send the car in for a computerize diagnosis... So we got no choice but to send it in today... Seems like the turbine solenoid valve was the culprit... No wonder the car lost a lot of power... Now we are still waiting for the parts and it will only be available in a few days time so we got no choice but to drive the car in limp mode... As for 'FrankenBenz', overheating and gearbox problems still exist... Still can't determine the exact culprit for the time being!!! Problems, problems, problems!!!

WOW was the first reaction that I've got when I saw the movie preview for the very first time... Looking at the name of this movie, make it a double WOW for me... I like movies involving exorcism and vampire... So 'Priest' will definitely fit in my 'MUST WATCH' list for this year...

But after the movie, I started to curse myself... Why waste money on this shitty movie!!! Not even 'Maggie Q' can saved this movie as it was a disaster!!! So so storyline plus not so visual appealing CGI... What more can you ask for from a BAD movie??? 'Priest' tick all the right boxes so in my humble opinion, definitely not worth watching... Save you time and money from it!!!

Celebrated Mother's Day with the in law at this restaurant... This was one of their favourite restaurant for crab... But too bad, the crab were all sold out when we reached there... My sister in law was craving for fried calamari and we decided to order and frankly speaking, it was really good...

Nowadays there's been a crazed in 'Batu Pahat' regarding this vegetable... I don't really know what vegetable it was... According to all the restaurant, these vegetables were organically grown... As for the taste, nothing special I'm afraid but the price was something of an eye opener... This very plate of vegetable cost RM48!!!

All the dishes were nice... Nothing to complaint about... The only thing that I don't really like about this restaurant was they always trying to recommend the most expensive food around... Already told them we wanted something more normal and yet they continued to recommend those really expensive fish and etc which was a BIG no no for me...

Overall Rating - 3.6/5

Restoran Loong Yuan Seafood

No. 35, Jalan Kuning,

Taman Murni,

83000 Batu Pahat,

Johor.

07-431 3963

The halfcut that I bought reached the workshop as promise... The workshop guys wasted no time and started to dismantle the engine from the halfcut... And here's the engine in its full glory... The 'Toyota 1JZ-GTE' was regarded as one of the most potent engine in 'Toyota' arsenal right after the '2JZ-GTE'... So I'm pretty happy with my purchase!!!

Everything's in a mess!!!

Stock 'Toyota 1JZ-GTE' auto ECU... Not going to upgrade it at the moment... If yes, most probably will install a piggyback ECU rather than a full blown standalone... I'm not targeting BIG horsepower here... Just some added power will do... Not going overboard with the car as I still need to chauffeur my clients around sometimes...

One of the CT12A turbine... This engine utilizes two of these turbine...

To be continue...

Wow another 'Donnie Yen' movie!!! Seems like he's really famous nowadays!!! You can see him starring in almost all new movies... Ok I might exaggerate a little bit... Since I'm his fans, any movie starring him will see me flocking to the cinema!!! Obviously I have really high expectation on his latest movie because almost all movie starring 'Donnie Yen' were awesome...

But I'm wrong this time... I really love story involving 'The Three Kingdom' but don't why I just don't like this one... In fact I'm really confuse about the storyline... I don't quite understand what are they trying to portray here... After watching the movie, I got a lot of ??? flying all over my head... But the action is still awesome though as always... Seems like not all 'Donnie Yen' movies are nice... So now, can anyone be kind enough to explain the movie storyline to me???

Another late write up as usual!!! This year we tried something different... My mum decided to try out one of the newest hotel in 'Batu Pahat'... 'Pine Tree Hotel' is the name... In my opinion, it was also one of the coolest hotel in my hometown... I really like their interior design... Minimalist and modern... The room was awesome too...

I'm really in love with my new 50mm lens!!!

Nice leg huh!!!

The designer did a really good job!!! Just love the reception area... 'Pine Tree Hotel' is not the most standard hotel around but definitely the coolest...

Although this is one of the coolest hotel in 'Batu Pahat', but this can't be said for their food or services!!! Foods are still acceptable but the service........... haiz, really hopeless in my opinion...

'South African Ostrich' according to them... Ostrich meat is suppose to be tender but theirs is rock hard!!! And please observe the sauce being serve...

'Grilled Salmon'...

'Tom Yam'...

'Chicken Chop'...

'Australian Beef'... Hard and over cook!!! So did you notice something similar with all these dishes except the 'Tom Yam'??? They served all the dishes with the same sauce... BBQ sauce for all!!! I love BBQ sauce but according to the menu, the 'Chicken Chop' and 'Ostrich' can be serve with either black pepper or mushroom sauce... So why BBQ sauce??? BBQ sauce is not even in the menu!!!

WORMS!!!

Very nice design and environment but spoil by the food and services offered but the rooms look superb though... Recommended for staying overnight but not for their food!!!

Overall Rating - 2/5

Pine Tree Hotel

36, Jalan Mengkudu,

83000 Batu Pahat,

Johor.

07-431 9933

Not again!!! Another battery problem it seems... The first time it happened when the car clock around 20,000++ km... Now the car mileage is around 60,000++ km and the battery is having problem again... This is the first time in my motoring life that I've encounter something like this... All my previous car have not been tow before... Not even once... But the 'Peugeot 308 Turbo' has been tow twice... Please I don't wish for a hat trick!!!

I'm really confuse to why can't the battery last a little bit longer??? I ask the technician from 'Peugeot' and they told me that the car have a lot of electronics, so obviously it consume a lot of battery... A modern 'BMW' or 'Mercedes Benz' have a lot of electronics too... But why their battery can last much longer compare to the 'Peugeot'??? My previous car battery last a staggering three years while the 'Peugeot' one last less than a year!!! We own the car for one year plus and this is the third batteries including the one that came with the car...

Those of you who drive the same car, please make sure that you ask the service advisor to get your battery check before your car reaches one year old because the warranty coverage for battery is only one year according to 'Peugeot'... I'm keeping my finger cross and hopefully this new battery can last at least a year!!!

p.s. Although I'm really frustrated with it, I'm still very much in love with our 'Pug'!!!

Since I got nothing to do, I decided to test my latest lens which is the 'Sigma 50mm F1.4 EX DG HSM'... All these shots were taken wide open at F1.4... Man I'm in love with it the moment I saw the pics... Very nice bokeh if you ask me... Smooth and velvety and not forgetting pin sharp where I focus on!!!

I'm a sucker for bokeh so I guess I made the right choice for getting this lens... The only downside that I find with this lens is the minimum focus distance which is a bit longer compare to my old 'Sony' 50mm... Guess I have to live with it...

What I need to do now is to get use to the DOF which is very shallow and mis-focus is quite common if shoot af F1.4!!! Guess I need to practice more now...