Cantopop on a high in November

What's happening to the music scene in Hong Kong? Two excellent albums released within a span of one week in November. First we have the first Cantonese album of Sandy Lam in the past 9 years (unless you count "Encore" in 2002 as a proper album), and then there's Ivana Wong with her follow-up album, titled "I Love My Name", to her brilliant debut earlier in the year.

I'll write up a proper review in the next few days but both albums do not disappoint. So they are constantly on my CD player at the moment.

On the other hand, CDs released in the UK seem to have been a bit of a disappointment. The new Robbie Williams album "Intensive Care" sounds tired and boring - the first single "Tripping" off the album just didn't have the spark at all and sounded as if he was struggling with the singing. The Madonna album "Confessions on a Dance Floor" has been hailed as one of her best albums in recent years - I need to listen to this a few more times before making my judgement on this, but after the first pass it didn't seem to contain that magic that I was looking for. We'll see....

The Curse of Wallace & Gromit

Just learnt that the DVD for "Wallace & Gromit: Curse Of The Were-Rabbits" is due to be released in February 2006! Can't wait. I've already seen the film twice (OK, I am a huge W&G fan) and I thought it's easiest the best film I've seen in this millenium - it was so funny that I ended up in tears at one point (remember the dogfight scene, with Philip taking out the purse trying to find the loose change for Gromit?).

And what happened in America with the film? Despite topping the box office in its first week of release, the film hasn't done as well as Dreamworks has hoped. And I thought Americans love all things British.... maybe it's the accent and the quirkiness that they don't get.

Back in Britain, it seems that the madness of hunting for those elusive PG Tips Gromit-shaped mugs has died down a bit, but on eBay they are everywhere! I have bought a few from Tesco myself (and a few as gifts for friends), but to be honest, from a practical point of view it's not very good - it's designed for right-handed people (not that I am left-handed, but I do sometimes use my left hand to hold a mug). Otherwise there are other W&G collectables flooding the market at the moment - mind you, most of the stuff you see on the high street don't seem to be that nice. Certainly some manufacturers seem to have made Gromit look extremely ugly.... So I've been buying a few Philip collectables instead.

My First Post

Right, after umming and arrgghhing for nearly a year, finally I have decided that it's time to just take the plunge and start writing my own blog, without caring too much about getting my website up and running again.

First of all, welcome to my personal blog. Whenever I get the chance, I'll post something on here. Don't count on a daily update. When I was young I had a go at writing diary, and the longest I ever did was just under 3 months. These days I tend to keep a diary when I go on long holidays but even that has become too much of a burden.

Still, there have been things in the past year that have touched me, and sometimes I wished I had already got a well-established blog and shared my thoughts and feelings with this world. I guess it has to start somewhere and so today is probably just as good as any other time.