And I always thought it was James VI....

Yesterday's movie viewing was The Last King of Scotland.



It is an excellent movie and well worth going to see. The violence/atrocities shown towards the end of the movie were a little too much for me....and resulted in a few nightmares last night...but still worth going to see.

Forest Whitaker was outstanding and deserves every possible award that could possibly be given him. His accent alone was amazing.

I did fret at the beginning of the movie as I was totally unprepared, I had no idea what the story line was and I realised I really had only the vaguest idea of Idi Amin's story and the history of Uganda...I like to be prepared when I go and see movies! I guess it's a control issue! So after the movie I trawled the book shops at Greenbelt and Rockwell and couldn't find a single book on Amin or Ugandan history...fortunately a friend is off to HKG today...he may just find something for me.

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Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition....

Thanks to an incredibly kind hearted fellow Scot who picked up on my list, last night’s viewing was Sliding Doors….John Hannah…definitely high up on my list of gorgeous men….not sure if it’s the accent or the face…probably a combination of the two!



I do enjoy Sliding Doors…it really is my kind of movie, and has one of my favourite lines of any movie…the only thing is that being the cynical and rather untrusting person that I am, I can never be too sure that their final meeting in the elevator means that they do actually live happily ever after….

I guess I have to work on this rather suspicious streak of mine!!!

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Sometimes it's nice not to go out of town!!

I've seen a glut of films this week...4 in a week..that should keep me quiet for a while!

Saturday night was Borat...it is absolutely hysterical and at the same time shocking...I found it hard to think of a group of people he doesn't insult in the movie. I don't think I'l be recommending the movie to my mother...I could be wrong, but I think she may be a little 'shocked'! Sunday evening was Happy Feet...cute, but definitely for kids and not for adults, admittedly the only other animated movies I have seen have been the Shrek movies so I was expecting something like that, i.e. slightly more adult content; no matter, the penguins were cute and there were some amusing lines but that was about it!

After pottering around Manila on Saturday afternoon and indulging myself in some wishful thinking I wandered over to the new kid on Roxas Boulevard, the G Hotel (2090 Roxas Boulevard), as mentioned by Carlos last week. It's an interesting property and from a design point of view a lot of thought has gone into it...the property is completely black and white...from the carpets in the lobby, to the uniforms to the floor tiles. It's all very smart, but what worries me is keeping it looking smart - black is easily chipped and white is very easily dirtied as can already be seen around the property. The staff are very friendly and seem to be spending the majority of their time offering show rounds, on Saturday out of 50 rooms, 45 were occupied - not bad considering that they only opened on 17th November. There is a nice little cafe/bar on the 7th floor which has a nice breeze and a sideways-on view of the Bay. The basics of the hotel are very nice, but it needs a few final tweaks just to get it 'right'...

The coffee shop on the ground floor

the view from the bar/cafe (Mirage) on the 7th floor


The views from the function room on the 7th floor, actually a very nice room with a terrace running around the front and the side...perfect for a small wedding.





The pool, really quite small, but perfectly adequate and catches the sun most of the day, the first picture shows the cafe/bar just to the right of the pool.


And finally, the facade...

If you're planning on driving down there, the hotel has a huge parking lot just next to the hotel.

Sunday saw the day spent at Greenhills, the Island Boy from Cebu being in town and not having been to Greenhills for a long while! So lunch, shopping/pottering and a movie...the branch of Fully Booked at Greenhills is actually pretty good, I picked up a few books I had been looking for; I had always thought it rather small but had missed the areas at the back and the upper level!

Dinner on Sunday was down at the Bay at So Woo, a Korean restaurant at Harbour Square (opposite the CCP), food was excellent and the added bonus was sitting outside on the terrace overlooking the bay with a lovely clear night of stars and lights. A quick hop, skip and a jump over to the G Hotel to see how it shapes up at night...terrace still nice, but they seriously need to do something about the lighting at night!

So, all in, a nice relaxing weekend - nothing too stressful, just enjoying what Manila has to offer and enjoying the nice weather...the company helped too!

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Who's going to pull the frog out of the boiling water?

Every so often it is necessary to be dealt a cold, hard slice of reality. Last night was my 'every so often' and the cold, hard slice of reality was watching An Inconvenient Truth. What ever one may think of Al Gore, he presents the case very convincingly and is obviously very passionate about his subject matter. To be honest, when presented with the facts and figures he shows it's hard not to be convinced that humanity is driving Planet Earth to a fairly nasty end.

At school I studied Geography for 'A' Level (with a side of Geology A Level just for good measure!), our Geography teacher was very sceptical on the subject of global warming and climate change, as far as she was concerned it was just a 'momentary blip' that the world was warming up and she guessed at it all being over within a 20 year period. My school being overly religious and the teachers fitting the mold, the general concensus was that God would take care of it! Maybe He will, however, in the meantime I think the world's population could help out!

The movie features a lot of pictures comparing glaciers, mountain peaks and lakes and rivers..some of the photos only 10 or 20 years apart showing massive glacial retreats due to temperature increase and lakes and rivers drying out due to man diverting the water supply for irrigation, industrial use or to support the population, one such case which isn't mentioned in the film but is one very close to my heart is that of the Dead Sea.


Something I found very upsetting was the information that for the first time, scientists are finding that polar bears are drowning because the Arctic Ice shelf is melting.


Having watched Gore speak passionately and clearly in the movie and on the news as he has globe trotted with his message, it brings home to me that thanks to the decision of the US Supreme court, it's possible that the world was deprived of a very good and very intelligent president.

Not directly connected to the election (but I thought it somewhat amusing) Gore shows us what would happen to the Florida coastline if Greenland melted. The sea level would rise some five or so meters and the map would look a like this (unfortunately I cannot find the exact graphic he used in the film, I can just see gore thinking 'that'll teach you to quibble over hanging chads'!

If the Greenland Ice Sheet melts, the impacts will be enormous. Red areas in this image of southern Florida show locales susceptible to a five-meter rise of sea level, based on elevation. Yellow areas denote urban locations.

The one, apparently being the consequence


of the other...


And what's with the frog in the boiling water? Well it's an old story, often told - particularly in the political arena, however, according to this article it may not be true!!

An Inconvenient Truth, should be required viewing for all of humanity...unfortunately as that's not practical, let's ensure the world's politicians, leaders, teachers, business leaders and Big Oil executives see it...and, most importantly all school children so they can ask their adults "What are you doing to ensure that when I am grown up I still have a planet to live on?"

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Coffee, Tea or me...??!!!

I'm back! As always it was too short...you just start to wind down and breathe and then its time to come back...anyway, I guess it was better than nothing...

A slightly different Cebu weekend to the norm, due to a few "official" engagements that my travelling companion had to show face at, he's good at that kind of thing...I'm terrible; and as a consequence try as much as possible to fade into the background, however I am learning to plaster a fairly convincing smile on my face, nod when required and say very, very little!!! Going to these sort of events with my friend always reminds me of that line the Neil Diamond movie 'The Jazz Singer'...when his wife says to the agent..."What was I supposed to do...follow him around from city to city saying 'Wow'?".

The weekend started with a flying visit to the Lapu-Lapu city tourism night...meeting all the 'right' people, the Mayor's wife and many others...then onto the Marco Polo to drop into the Pool side Chill out party...Skippy, I did try to take pictures of the models in their bikinis frolicking in the pool, but, unfortunately they didn't come out very well...I'm sorry!

Other than a spot of shopping and a whole lot of lying on the beach, Sunday saw us going to see Casino Royale...it was excellent..Daniel Craig does 007 proud. The two best quotes of the movie...

Bartender: Shaken or stirred?
James Bond: Does it look like I give a damn?

and my all time favourite line...

Vesper to Bond: You take the next one, there's not enough room in here for me and your ego

Monday saw more lazing by the beach...a bit of activity in feeding the fishes and then into Cebu City for a spot of sightseeing..namely the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño...and Magellan's Cross. The evening was a little stressful...the traffic was so bad it took us over an hour and half to get from Cebu City back to Mactan...quite horrific..Dinner was at the Mayor's house - unfortunately due to timing constraints we turned up in what can only be described as beach wear...I was mortified! and then a real rush to catch the last flight...I'm surprised they let us board...surprised, but very grateful!!

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