Another year passes by and I looked back on the many great movies I have watched during the year 2010. Here is my usual self-indulgent annual list.



10. The Expendables

Sylvester Stallone decides to bring all the major action stars of recent times and put them in this crazy action film which brings that awesomely absurd 80s action films. The all-start line up includes Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, (Stone Cold) Steve Austin, Mickey Rourke and Terry Crews. Nothing but the standard mercenary line up going up against a South American warlord and his private army.  Like I said, awesomely absurd 80s action film tribute. I am a child of the 80s and I approve.



9. Predators

Another tribute to the great 80s action classic Predator. If one were to look closely at this film, it almost feels like we are watching the original, but I have no complaints. I first thought Adrian Brody looked like a wuss who couldn't pull an action film, but I was proven wrong. It was great that they went back to the basics of the aliens vs a set of different military figures. Action movie done right once again.



8. Scott Pilgrim vs The World

This is a geek film from start to beginning. The entire film is like a tribute to the video games of the 80s - 8-bit sound effects and digitised arts. At the heart of it is the usual story about a teenager's life as he tries to overcome his challenges and win the girl. Much credit to a great comic book adaptation which translated will to the big screen without coming of as childlish or silly. Some say a cult favourite in the making?



7. How To Train Your Dragon

At its very core, this is a story about a boy and his dog. Except his dog is a dragon that breathes fire. Also at its core is the usual coming-of-age story of a boy as he finds his identify and self-worth. I am also very glad that it does not have talking dragons like most Dreamworks animations might have turned out. Very effective also in 3D as the first-person dragon flight makes you feel like you are actually in the film too.



6. Toy Story 3

The franchise which launched the animation career of the unstoppable and excellent Pixar now finally draws to a heart-warming conclusion. Andy has finally grown up and the toys questions what is their next step too. They band together for one last adventure as they make their way to their new life-after-Andy. A wonderful conclusion and closure as we bid farewell to the toys that made us all feel like children once again.



5. Tangled

Everybody knows how I have a soft spot in my cynical heart for a Disney. And I don't care if it's about princess and kingdoms and magic and happily ever after. This time around, Disney decides to inject more spunk into its heroine, Rapunzel and gives her love interest a run for his money. I truly enjoyed the songs once more courtesy of the greatest Disney composer ever Alan Menken. Charming characters, wonderful songs, and fairy tale story, what more could I want from a Disney film?



4. Kick-Ass

Another comic book adaptation on my list this year, is this rather anti-superhero flick. There are no super powers or high-tech gadgets, just normal people attempting to be heroic. But these normal people aren't normal either, considering there are vicious gangsters, awkward school boys and a some-what-psychopathic father & daughter team. Full of comic book references and themes, and also moments of laughters and horror. Just like comic books.



3. The Social Network

It is easy to see why some are calling this the modern Citizen Kane after watching it. The plot drives home just about the same point, and yet creates an interesting and engaging approach to the subject of the technologies of the Internet which would other bore out non-techies. It is also very much a dialogue driven film thanks to the excellent writing of Alan Sorkin. Yet despite all the talking, it again never does get boring. An excellent film just for the writing alone.



2. Shutter Island

Martin Scorsese decides to take on the film noir mystery genre. While it seems a little further away from his usual style of gritty violence, he decides to take a mystery novel and adapt it into an impressive experiment of sort for Scorsese. Still essentially an engaging twister of a thriller, Scorsese is found to playing more with the tone and came works to build up the suspense and questions for the viewer. I was sucked into it intensely. 

1. Inception

I am not shy about my love for director Christopher Nolan. Having already proved his worth with modern classics like Memento, The Prestige, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, he now returns with another awesome mind-frak suspense thriller. This film is like a intricate psychoanalysis, and yet at it's very core is a heist story. There are so many ways to approach this film, and that is why it is such a great film - when it opens up different discussions and interpretations. I walked out of this film in a daze.

 And there you have it again, my annual top 10 films of 2010. Onwards to 2011!

My new season surprisingly came a week sooner that I was prepared and a much surprising but pleasant turn of events placed me on a flight to the city of Nicosia, in the European country of Cyprus. Honestly, I did not know much about Cyprus prior to this. Of course, thanks to the wonders of the Internet, Wikipedia and WikiTravel, I was filling myself with more information on Nicosia and Cyprus.

I was made to enter the office of my new company on the Friday before I was scheduled to fly to Cyprus. It was merely a quick taste of the office, but boy was it a big difference to the lab-like work environment of the past.

Call me easily impressed but I was delighted that I had my very own cubicle!Yes, it sounds sad indeed but I never had a cubicle for the past 5 years of employment. 

Call me easily impressed but I was delighted that I had my very own phone! Yes, it sounds sad indeed but I never had my own phone line for the past 5 years of employment.  

Call me easily impressed, but I was delighted that .... well, one should get the idea by now. 

I had a good chair with full backrest, my very own company laptop, and goodness - Internet access! Even my very own waste paper basket! Did the last 5 years deprived me of so much basic employee facilities that resulted in my current state of over-appreciativeness?

Nevertheless, come Saturday night I was flying out by Emirates to Dubai for transit, before landing in Cyprus on Sunday. Touching down in Larnaca Airport in Cyprus, I had a glance out the window and had my very first view of a Mediterranean scenery. The driver picks me and some staff from India who happen to also arrive on the same flight and heads into the city of Nicosia. The drive gives me more time to admire the Mediterranean scenery again. And I was thinking, "Jesus, this is the sort of place you traveled before!". My thoughts and my faith mixes in very peculiar ways.

At the apartment, the first person to greet me at my door was a kitty sitting by the window. I would know later on that Cyprus is crawling with cats. A member of mine would have loved it here. The apartment is nothing posh or fancy, but decent enough for a period of stay. There is a kitchen with cooking facilities, so I believe I will try to make use of this and make things to be passed off as food. I take a walk outside on that Sunday afternoon, just to survey the land and probably get some grocery supplies. It is terribly quiet on a Sunday afternoon on the streets. Thankfully some kiosks (that is what they call mini-marts around here) were opened.

Come Monday morning, time to report to work. I hardly had a feel of the KL office and here I am now already about to find out how work is like here in Cyprus. Technically, it was not so much of work then it was attending a training class. I find myself with a majority of Cypriot Greeks, two Russians and an Indian. Work itself is not much to write about. At this early stage of being with the company, hardly much is known to be able to effectively complete the assignments given after each teaching session.

For most of the work week I played it safe. Getting groceries from a nearby kiosk and not having any fancy food. Catching up on The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, Fringe and the occasional movie. Then came the weekend and it was time to go out and see Nicosia like a tourist.

The old city of Nicosia is just about a kilometers walk from my apartments. Walking down Makarios III Avenue to the old city, I am treated to some high fashion retailers, but not that any of them interests me. This modern part of Nicosia does not look too shabby either. There are people how obviously have a taste for high fashion as well as a taste for fine dinning, evident by the number of dinning restaurants along the avenue.

Now reaching the old city is altogether different. The walls of the old city was built during the Byzantine Empire is still standing. I probably take an interest in these old historical facts. I like my world history especially those of ancient Rome and Greece, evident how well I scored in SPM Sejarah Bab 1. Though I hear the Sejarah subject isn't what it used to be these days. Poor kids.

Anyhow, I am fascinated at the history of how Nicosia has been inhabited since as early as the Bronze Ages. The artifacts that can be seen in the Cyprus Museum. Then passing to the Hellenistic Greek age, with the various statues of familiar Greek gods, especially Aphrodite, since the legend is that Aphrodite was born here on the island of Cyprus. It is the Byzantine eras that has the most influence in the city, also showcased with its many display of artworks in the Byzantine Museum. Nicosia even had some encounter with the Crusades of the Middle Ages. The mention of Crusade isn't exactly a positive thing though. 

There are many old churches also from the Byzantine era, mostly those of Greek Orthodox denomination. It is probably due to my faith, but I just like to visit old churches and see the expression of faith of the old days in the form of buildings, paintings and sculptures. In contemporary churches like my own, these things are a rare sight. While I have respect for fellow believers in the Orthodox belief, I am aware their strict traditions and customs does seem rather detached from the grace, salvation and freedom that I have learned from the Gospel. I know Greek Orthodox is much closer to the Roman Catholic faith and somewhat distant from my Protestant Christian faith, I still like to think of this is my chance of stepping into a time that was much closer to the early days of the church. After all, Cyprus was even one of the locations of Paul and Barnabas had set foot on in their journeys.

Nicosia is also very much a tourist spot. I found the usual well traveled tourist from UK, Russia, Japan and India in the crowds in the city. It helps the Cyprus used to be part of the UK before gaining independence, so the local are fluent in English enough so that I have not much trouble dealing with them over the purchasing counter. I must add here another observation of mine - there are many Indians here in Cyprus! Mostly seen working as foreign labourers in places such as the kiosks and supermarkets. My hats of to the Indian nationals, you are a far reaching group of people. Russell Peter highlighted that very well in his sketches too.

Cypriots are an interesting group of people as well. First thing I notice outside is their lack of courtesy on the road and disregard for traffic rules. An accessible curb is just another potential park lot to them, which is why I notice the many pillars placed along the curb of sidewalks. They also will not think twice about winding down their car window and giving a piece of their mind in high decibels to the other driver who just cut into their lane without warning (which many Cypriots seem to do). Makarios III Avenue has given me a fare share of amusing moments to witness. These Greek Cypriots kind of remind me of Italians (or rather my stereotypical view of Italians) - brash, loud and funny. I then think back to that TV series Mind Your Language and understand now how the Italian Giovanni and the Greek Max seemed to get along so well.

But while they seem less than pleasant in their driving ethics, their wedding customs seem rather close to some custom back home. Like how the bridal car upon approaching the church will blow their horn to signal their arrival. Ah, Cypriots and Chinese are not that different after all. And I remember one particular afternoon where a bridal car seemed to trying to make a point on Makarios III Avenue making a few turns on the road and blowing its horn, much to the delightful smiles of bystanders and their show of support by blowing their car horns as well. No doubt wherever you are in the world, a wedding is a joyous occasion to be shared with all, even the stranger on the road.

I also wanted to be adventurous in my time here in Nicosia and made it a point to try out some of the local food of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern flavours. During the weekdays I mostly stuck with my poor attempt at cooking some things to passed off as food for my usual dinners. I must also thank my parents who raised me not to be fussy. Otherwise, how could I stomach the at times poor tasting food I served myself? But weekends I went out and had a hearty good Cypriot meal. On my list I had managed to cover the loocal KEO beer, pitta breads, mixed kebab of lamb, souvlaki (skewered pork), sheftalia (mixed sausage), McDonals Greek Mac (taste as cheesy as its name sounds), Greek salads with fetta cheese, ttavas (oven-baked rice with stewed meat), stifado (stewed beef with rice), moussaka (layered eggplant and meat) and the crowning dish with everything in it, meze! The meze even had hummus in it, that Middle Eastern paste at the butt of the jokes in that Adam Sandler movie Don't Mess With The Zohan. Boy, that was crap. The film I mean, not the hummus. 

Fortunately I wasn't just stuck in Nicosia, as said Indian colleague earlier also has some ideas of seeing what else Cyprus had to offer. He had hooked up with another Indian national here on assignment in Nicosia and I just tagged along with their idea to visit the famous Cyprus beaches of Ayia Nappa. He hired a car, which was also driven by some Indian nationals and drove us down to the beaches for a day trip. And boy is it windy at the beaches. Strong winds kick up even the grains of sands on the ground and hit my legs with such strong tiny velocities that I get prickly pains just from it. As for the sea water, I have not seen many blue beaches in my lifetime, so the seas of Ayia Nappa was so impressively blue! I even had a dip in its waters and it actually was just nice (it was the summer anyway). But once I got out of the water, the strong winds gave me the chills again. So I stayed submerged most of the time. It is like that song which goes "and now she's afraid to come out of the water", except for me it wasn't because of any embarrassing-looking swimming attire.

Towards the evening while walking on the beach, my newfound Indian friends suddenly found new friends themselves, in the form of Pakistani college students who were also having by the beach. All guys, mind you. And so these Pakistani guys invited us to their place for some tea. Very hospitable of them. And so they had their tea and chatted immensely. But the amusing (or rather awkward) thing was that I had already spent most of the day stuck between 2 Indian nationals conversing to each other mainly in Hindi. And now, I have another group of 4 Pakistani guys now also conversing to them in Hindi. So I am stuck in Hindi movie with no subtitles. After they had enough of their Hindi-centric chat, we parted ways and our Indian drivers drove us back safely to Nicosia in their beat up car.

Eventually my time in Nicosia came to a close as the training period ended. I was the first of the group to be leaving for home on Friday while my Russian and India acquaintances were only due to fly back the next day. I bid them farewell and perhaps we might be working together again in the future. But before I could have a smooth and trouble-free journey to the airport and back home that evening, I find myself waiting for an extra 30 minutes with no driver in sight to pick me up. One phone call later and I find out that the driver was not informed of my departure for that day. Uh-oh, I do not want another Amazing Race moment where I could miss my flight. But thankfully the skillful driver is able to weave through the small roads of Nicosia away from the traffic-congested ones and get me to the airport in time for the flight. Phew.

Well, Cyprus it has been fun. Delightful I should add?