It's Me!bourne

Uneventful flight to Melbourne.

Many hours on plane cramped between old people.

But there's an LCD console that plays movies. Good chance to catch up on all the cool stuff that's neither worth paying to watch, nor worth the effort to download.


There's Must Love Dogs with John Cusack.

I'll invent a new metaphor for movies like this: It's like sex with a $10 prostitute.

It's a love story with a mechanical plot, just going through the motions. Boy. Girl. Dogs. Family members. Token best friends. Comic. Token love triangle. A completely unrealistic ending with the girl swimming after Cusack on a row-boat. Riiiiiight!!!


There's Initial D.

It's a movie with a plot as matured as the Manga. But some credit needs to be given to the director and cinematographer. The techniques used gave it a suitable manga feel to it, and not so overdone as Ang Lee's The Hulk.


There's The Librarian.

I'm tired at this point. Picked a movie where I didn't need to concentrate on the plot. A bookish Indiana, a downsized Lara Croft, Kelly Hu, and a bunch of bad guys who can inexplicably materialise anywhere in the world 3 seconds after the hero finds the magic artifact. Yea, the best tracker in the Amazon can track through a collapsed bridge, a waterfall and through Shangrila.


Finally, Trainman.

Supposedly, a blockbuster in Japan. Story of an Otaku -(something like a Jap version of a Trekkie, but with an anime obsession)- who meets a decent girl, and tries to woo her, with all the moral support from his other Otaku friends on IRC.

Very interesting story-telling. Was enjoying the movie up to the point when the flight attendant took away my headphones. But I could still go on with just the subtitles, until the screen blanked out when the plane was making its final approach. So I didn't quite find out what the girl says to the geek's wish to be more than friends. GAAAAAAAAA!!!

I'm hoping the program will still be there on my flight back to KL....


Arrival in Melbourne airport. 2045H local time. Bought a bunch of smokes. Greeted at the baggage claim by an adorable beagle (that's my guess, I'm not a dog person.) Navigated through their strict quarantine procedures. Managed to cart in enough stock to set up a grocer! Luckily, the instant mee, crackers, dried cuttlefish, chinese herbs etc didn't get confiscated.

Outside temperature was in the teens. And the wind-chill factor makes it really miserable. This is summer?