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Group what?! Yeah its Group-ON AGAIN!

1:23 AM |

No! I did not buy anything from groupon again! Well like how people used to say "Once bitten, twice shy, twice bitten never TRY" I guess I am shy (seldom am like that) when it comes to Groupon! More to never try again (ever)! Groupon really fuck up (Sorry! I tried not to swear that often anymore) all the deals and proper business doing.

 I am looking for a hotel to actually celebrate my FIL's (Father in Law) birthday. When I Google the hotels and famous restaurants info, I only come to realize that these outlets is or had advertised in Groupon and they are slashing price up to 50%! (Damn!) 

Oh Yeah! I am pissy like the other Marshy boys & girls! But still try to be cool like the one on top coz its cute to be "cool headed" 
From my past experiences of Groupon

  1. Tried buying an electronic gadget (check the hassle I been through in my old post)
  2. As a customer in one of my "normal hangout & meetup" place with my besties that was corrupted by them
  3. Just happen to (bad luck) walk into a restaurant running a deal with them on weekend
Through these experiences I will never book an outlet which is running a deal with Groupon! Reasons are those of below
  • Bad service 
    • Been told "please wait for seating" because a lot of Groupon deals customers just showed up without booking! (Excuse me! We paid normal price still need to wait for our place along with the half price paying customers!!??!) 
    • Also most of the time I do not understand why! People from Groupon do not understand T&C like "call 3 days in advance to make reservation?!? Many a times we were told that people just show up creating a congestion in the makan place! 
    • Been asked to wait for half an hour because too many people from Groupon (although they eat the SET meals) and the chefs are unable to cater to so many people especially those who showed up without booking (My answer: Kick them back tell them to make booking lor! These deal hungry people will sure be back again one! After all you should give them "the service" not us NORMAL PAYING CUSTOMER) 
    • Usually the waiter/waitress are agitated due to the influx and also "not their father's business" why bother?! (Check out KFC fist-fighting "so good" due to Groupon deal .. you will know) So when you request for something (sitting together with the half paying Groupon buying people) they will snapped at you! (Well you can't blame them too! Blame their boss for throwing this extra load on them!) 
  • Terrible Food Quality
    • Well being Malaysian or maybe Asian! We always talk about COST! Everything is COST! When you can slashed your price up to 50%, and all of a sudden 300 customers appear at your doorstep, do you think you can still afford to give us "the usual"? Certainly not! Therefore you resort to cheaper alternative and the difference is so obvious! It is really unfair actually to be treated like dirt in this case!
    • Cold food! Very cold food! In order to serve up faster, they turn to pre-prepare their meals, therefore some dishes that coincide with the normal set they are offering are already cold (Bad Luck) if you happened to order it! Yucks! (Too bad!!!)
    • From past experience my favorite steamboat place used to offer crab, huge fresh Shitake mushroom, High grade prawn and fresh vegetable. After they run a crazy deal in Groupon (never gone back again after that) they scrapped out crab, packet Shitake, low quality prawn and limited choices of seafood and vegetable, to make it ridicules they charged for ice refill! Reason: Groupon people bring own chill water and ask for ice only! (Do you have to be cheap like that!)   
  • Congestion, Overcrowded and Parking issue
    • I dunno but then this is a crazy issue in Malaysia itself, with everybody reaching 17 and have license and could afford a car. On top of that, cars as old  as my grandpa time (RIP grandpa - I still miss you!) are still on the road! Geez! So when there is a Groupon thing going on things are bound to go wrong! 
    • Plus "what the hell" do I need to Q together with the Groupon people?!? Long Q by the way! So I decided not to! I am not one to Q for my food! 
  • Noise & environment deterioration
    • Yeap I said that! Not a environmentalist but I prefer cleanliness above everything else! When there is a Groupon deal, people will multiple by 5 times and then imagine instead of 50 people it will be more like 250 people in the shop (especially weekend) and noise will be a problem and then garbage and stuff will be strewn or "accidentally" drop on the floor! 

I am going to stop wasting my time complaining about these people (but still I have to mention : Can't afford to wine & dine at expansive places! Don't lor! We got our limit on spending too and will not try deals and stuff to sort of fight over with 100 people to get a seat!) and spend my time looking for other alternatives instead! I am tat down now because it is in 2 days time and I am still searching for the right place! Arrgghhh I am going crazy, so stress out!

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Posted by Sharon

Book For Worms : Inkheart Trilogy

11:55 PM | Labels:

It surely felt good to be able to finish a book and not just a book but a trilogy with pages as thick as the encyclopedia. Well at least that is how I felt when I flipped the last page of my first borrowed book : INKHEART TRILOGY.


Title: Inkheart Trilogy
(Book consists of Inkheart, Inkspell & Inkdeath)
** Inkheart was made into a major motion picture starring Brendan Fraser **
Author : Cornelia Funke
Rating: ★★★★
Inkheart trilogy is a wonderful book, in-spite being so so thick (Yeah! Over 2000 pages) it really does held my interest and kept me reading day and night! (Confession made: In fact at times I only started cooking dinner only at 7pm). There are many reviews about this book, for the realistic, this book will prove too much of a fantasy to them but for those like me who believes that fairytale do come true in little happenings of life this is indeed a good book. I was lost in it, nothing difficult to understand as all you need to do is use your imagination. (Although at times some of the happenings in the book is a bit too out of the world unrealistic! Like unicorns and coming back from death and fairies and bear as a pet and talking glassman! Oh I could go on and on!)  I am not here to review the books and provide a synopsis, because if one needs to know the summary of this book there are a lot of sites that had done that. Just type in "Inkheart" in your Google search bar and you will land on many many websites that does the same thing, you can get most accurate interpretation from Wikipedia itself.

 I am here to share with you some characters that I find interesting in this trilogy. 

 Mortimer Folchart - No story can be complete without our good old hero! (Portrayed by Branden Fraser in the motion picture and no he is not old! I am just speaking figuratively) A very protective father, a loving husband and a friend turned hero (Bluejay) in the last two books. He has the ability to read characters out of books, it is how the story started when he read 2 villains and 1 hero out of the book, Inkheart. Reading characters out of books came with a risk, it is that people around him will be drawn into the book as an exchange (that is how he lost his wife and two cats) I find him a little too brash and he tends to take a lot of risk that gives the story its excitement but at times land him in captivities of his hunters. It got me really annoyed halfway through the second book when he stubbornly wanted to stay in the Inkworld in spite persuasion from his wife and daughter to go back to the real world.

 Maggie Folchart - The daughter of Mo. A very interesting character that found out soon enough that she can read characters out of books as well, she even read herself into books, in fact a skill she perfected better than her father (?!?) I find Maggie admirable, she is very brave and she stood up for what she always believe - her love for her father and her over protectiveness towards her mother. 

 Theresa Folchart (Resa) - The wife of Mo and mother of Maggie. She appear on the second half of the story of Inkheart and read back to real life by Darius (another character who can read characters out of book BUT he stammers hence reading the characters with extreme flaws out - Resa was read out by him without her voice!) She works as a maid in the villains castle before being found out by Mo and rescued nearing the end of the first book. She is a brave women who goes to the extreme to save her husband by transforming into a bird, I was half scare for her when she flew from one place to another in search of her husband that was held capture in the Castle by the lake. (Oh my! You gotta read it to know what I mean! The reading got my heart pumping, hoping that she is safe) 

 Elinor Loredon - One of my favorite character! (Played by Helen Mirren in the motion pictures), she has an inexhaustible wealth that she spend all on books! Rows and rows, rooms and rooms of books, from rare to common books! My goodness, I imagined what it feels like to be taking a tour around her house. She has no children and was never married, so all she has is her books that she called her children, keeping her company! It was sad in the middle of the story when the villains tried to get back on her for helping Mo escaped by burning all her books in the garden of her mansion! (But no worries : She replaced all the books 3 months later!) The reason I like her is that she is such a character! Nobody crosses Elinor Loredon without getting it back in return. Every chapter in which she appears, I somehow felt that things can NEVER go wrong because somehow lucky enough or by simple wits Elinor will overcome them! Nothing absolutely nothing will hinder her! I just love this character! ;) 

 Dustfinger - Initially I hated him but I had a change of heart when I continued reading! At first I was like, "If Dustfinger does not appear! Mo and Maggie will be safe and sound in their little cottage! It was him who betrayed them and brought the villains to Folchart's door" but then at the end I realized that he does that because he loved his wife and children a lot and wanted to get back into Inkworld , in exchange he has to get Mo to the villains. I like Dustfingers too because he is sort of a hero, daredevil type! Another character that gave me the comfort, if he is around he will be able to walk out of the trouble without any problem at all. (Provided if his pet Gwin the Marten does not screw things up for him! But Gwin is an adorable character like any pets would...) Back in the Inkworld, people called him "Fire Dancer"  because he can make fire obeyed him and perform all kinds of tricks with fire. At the end, especially after he came back from the world of the dead, he can make amazing fire shows (eg. he makes spiders out of fire that crawls the entire castle by the lake to save Mo. or he mastered the skill of letting his soul slip out of his body to appear dead!) There are 101 things I can write about Dustfinger but one word sums it all! He is AMAZING! 

 Black Prince - With his pet bear! Gosh! I love the fact that one can make a bear a pet! Black Prince is a hero of the wayward minstrels in Inkworld. Minstrels are considered outcast in Inkworld, therefore they are to live out of sight in the forest and only performs when they are sought to do so! Black Prince later teamed up with Bluejay (Mo) to save the Inkworld! One word to describe him! HERO

 Violante - "Her Ugliness" The widow of Cosimo the fair. I find her likable  She was only 9 when she marries Cosimo, she was never loved by her father - The Adderhead, and not respected by his son Jacopo! She gotten her name Her Ugliness because she has a very big mark on her face and since birth everyone known her for that. She loves to read and somehow develop a crush for Bluejay! In the end she helped Bluejay to kill her father who never loved her and plan evil against her! At the last chapter after Adder's death she is known as "Her Kindliness" and she rules the kingdom with equality and kindness. Yeah the black big mark on her face faded away when Fegnolio (Writer of Inkworld) wrote it off.  

 Villains: 
Capricorn - The evil guy in the first book. Just one word sums him HATEFUL! He came out of the book and now he has the intention of conquering the world - our world btw! So he schemed to capture Mo and had him read his meanest killing machine - THE SHADOW out of the book to take over the world by fear! Of course he did not suceed at the end and was killed by Maggie. How? Capricorn came to life by mere words therefore he die by words. (Maggie read death upon him)

 Basta - Somehow Capricorn right hand man live a little longer than him (Alright so much longer than him. Capricorn was slain in the first book but Basta lived up to the third book and was later resurrected by Orpheus in the form of a nightmare - a ghost like creature that killed to survive) This man is tough and no nonsense type loyal to Capricorn like a dog to his master! Everything that Capricorn asked him to do, he will make sure it gets done! He is good in a bad term! 

 Orpheus - Fat, greedy, arrogant and evil! That is all that summed up Orpheus, last person that can read characters in and out of books without someone missing from this world. He read himself into Inkworld and somehow wreck havoc in it, as he not only read but he could write using the Inkheart book as a reference and simply by mix and matching, he read riches - untold reaches for himself and then linked himself with the ultimate evil, cold and heartless character to kill Mo. I felt like reaching my hands into the book and giving him three tight slaps! It is a pity that he did not die a tragic death but somehow escaped into the forest at the end of the story! (Geez Cornelia this guy should have die! You should have wrote him off!)

 Adderhead - He is the king on the other side of Inkworld! Inkworld is divided into two, one Ombra Kingdom ruled by Laughing Prince, father of Cosimo the Fair (dead twice) who turn to Prince of Sigh at the death of his son and the other one by The Adderhead - The Silver Prince name Argenta! Who lived in the Castle of Night! All he wanted is to live forever, to be immortal! His fear has drawn him to kill, steal and destroy like the "D" himself! He even took bath in fairy bloods in order to be alive! (Duh!) He did gain immortality but only for a while. How? When Mo make him a book of 500 pages with Adder's name written on it! With that book Adder will be alive forever unless someone wrote three words into it! It will instantly end the Adder's life! What are those three powerful words?! You will find out later!

 Magpie - Capricorn's mother that outlived his son till the third book, she is an evil woman during the lifetime of her son but once her son was "killed" by Maggie, she only breathe each day to avenge her son death and to make sure the whole entire Folchart family suffer and dies! She is the one that formulated through black magic to swallow seeds that transforms one into a bird! At the end Magpie was killed by Orpheus' nightmare! 

Somehow prominent characters that I find annoying

 Farid - A character that Mo read out from Ali Baba & Forty Thieves! He is there from the first book until the last page! He is a loyal companion to Dustfinger (In fact Dustfinger died because of him and was later brought back to life by Mo), Maggie's love interest and a damn good fire dancer (He is Dustfinger apprentice) He is strong, mature for a 16 years old and witty! He is ok but somehow he never really stick to me too well! I don't quite like him at times and I find his fear of spirit and darkness a little too much, plus his obsession for Dustinger crazily overwhelming) 

 Fegnolio - Well, supposed the writer of Inkworld and he is like "god" there if he got his act together! After "god of inkworld" found his world upside down and out of his control, he did not do anything to rectify it or set things right, in fact he thrown himself into alcohol and drown himself in sorrow and disappointment! He even created a mess when he wrote Mo into a "supposed hero" of the book "Bluejay" (a Robin Hood kind of guy!)  Fegnolio is another one that I would most likely slap and tell him to get up and write something! Thank God for Elinor! She did that for me! She arrived in Inkworld 20 chapters too late and found Fegnolio and slapped the reality out of him (Well in inkworld you slapped by using words!) He managed to get his act together and start writing bits and pieces here and there! (One notable one is when the Milksop - Adder's brother in law that was placed as puppet governor caught up to the black prince and his people, Fegnolio wrote a giant to save them! Another one was when Mo was injured and at the brink of death, Fegnolio wrote words of healing to make him feel better and to turn his fate around) 

 Jacopo - The son of Violante and Cosimo the fair. He is a brat! This small boy deserve some ass whopping from his mother. His character is a copy of his grandpa - The Adder but he has the smashing good look of his father Cosimo! Good looks doesn't really made you pleasant, especially you have a terrible character! In the end he is the one that retrieve the book for Mo to write the three words that pronounced the death or Adder! So that makes him OK! Hope he gets better when he grows up! 

 All wells ends well in this story! The bad guys die and the good guy lives! In spite of the fights and struggles, everything was set right once again and the Folcharts (Including new edition - a baby boy), Elinor, Darius, Fegnolio decided to stay in the Inkworld. So it was a happy read! I was satisfied with how the story is wrapped up when I flipped the book closed! Yay! And what is the three words that have so much power? Power to bring life and death in the Inkworld?
Heart, Spell, Death! 
  

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Posted by Sharon
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