Leglessbird leisure guide

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We have mixed feelings towards the city Rome, on the one hand it is a very interesting city full of historical monuments, like the Colosseo, Palatino, anywhere you go in Rome, you find a piece of history, not to mention that Vatican is right in the middle of Rome. On the other hand the city itself isn't exactly the type that we like, even though we are quite experienced travellers, we still had some problems with the transportation... Accommodation is generally quite expensive, but we managed to find a place called Pigneto House (essentially someone's private flat) that was reasonable and only 15 minutes from the centre.

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This is my second time n Vatican, it has been a long time since my las visit. Took plenty of photos at the Vatican museum and Saint Pietro. There is so much to see at the museum and the Saint Pietro (St Peter) Cathedrale is simply magnificent.

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We went to Lyon and took on a 2-week course at Lyon Bleu International, a small friendly French language school near the central area of Lyon. We heard about this school from a former teacher who now lives in Hong Kong. We had a fun 2-week and met many nice classmates from Germany, Japan, Korea, Switzerland, Sweden etc. Adding multimedia elements like music and movie to the traditional teaching, we think this is something in between our Paris School (very interactive and more practice on spoken French) and the Antibes School (more traditional teaching). Paris is a busy capital with many interesting things to offer, and Lyon is more relax, cleaner and nice in many other ways.

The school helped us to find the accommodation and the rate was quite reasonable and included breakfast and wifi access. The room was pretty decent with ensuite toilet, shower, kitchen facilities. It was also within walking distance (20 minutes on foot) from the school.

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Lyon is the second largest city in France, we decided to come to Lyon to do a 2-week language course on the recommendation of a French teacher whom we met in Hong Kong. We quite like the city, as it is not as busy (and stressful) as Paris, there is an old town which is both interesting and historical e.g Ancient churches, Roman Theatre, French Puppet (Guignol) etc. Lyonnais cuisine has it own unique offering, we had dinner at some well known restaurants like Orsi (Chef Perrie Orsi, nice and high-end restaurant), Brasserie Georges (nice and affordable) and Le Sud ("The South", also nice and affordable one of the restaurants by "The best chef in France" Paul Bocuse). Paul Bocuse's flagship restaurant is also in the outskirt of Lyon, we missed it this time.

Azumi Uncut 2 Disc Limited Edition (buy from Amazon)Type, Country, Year: Adventure / Drama / Fantasy / Thriller, Japanese, 2005

Director: Shusuke Kaneko

My rating: 3

Key actors/actresses:
Aya Ueto ... Azumi
Yuma Ishigaki ... Nagara

Chiaki Kuriyama ... Kozue
Shun Oguri ... Ginkaku
Kenichi Endo ... Kinkaku (as Kenichi Endou)

Kai Shishido ... Hanzou

Story:
Continuing the story from Azumi 1, having killed 2 out of 3 of the warlords, Azumi and one remaining assassin must complete their mission to kill the last warlord but he is not going to sit and wait for their attack, in fact he has his own protection and attack team in the form of ninjas. He proactively launch attack on the buddest monk and on Azumi and her friends...

My review:
Yet more killing scenes and Azumi struggles on whether she should continue her mission and to understand the meaning of mission.

Though a bit repeatative, nonetheless the movie is pretty entertaining, especially if you like assassins vs ninja type of movie.

Azumi (buy from Amazon)
Type, Country, Year: Adventure/ Drama/ Fantasy/ Thriller, Japanese, 2003

Director: Ryuhei Kitamura

My rating: 3

Key actors/actresses:
Aya Ueto ... Azumi
Shun Oguri ... Nachi
Hiroki Narimiya ... Ukiha
Kenji Kohashi ... Hyuga
Takatoshi Kaneko ... Amagi
Yuma Ishigaki ... Nagara

Story:
At the end of the war, the Buddist monk of the country fears that in order to have long lasting peace, he must eliminate all the warlords, he asks the General to hide and secretly trains 10 kids to become assassins. Years later these assassins are ready to take on their mission to kill the three warlords who threaten peace. But their first mission to test their readiness is to kill their best friends who they have known and trained together since childhood. Azumi the only girl in the group (and the strongest) has to kill her boyfriend to prove her loyalty. The remaining 5 follow their master and try to accomplish their mission, but they soon find out that it is not as easy as they think...

My review:
I must say I find the master of the assassins very stupid, I mean halving your resource before you start and inducing doubts and questions in the surviving assassins as a result is hardly a smart move. This also contribute to the difficulty they have later. Too much repeatitive and senseless killing in the movie. Azumi's much exaggerated killing ability is hardly convincing.

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While we were staying at Annecy, we took this boat ride around the lake and stopped by Tallories which is a small town also by the lake side. We visited a small shop and met with the owner's family who appreciates oriental culture very much, and they have spent much time in places like India and Nepal.

This is part of our 2-week French language trip in Lyon.

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Annecy is a very beautiful city by the lake and there is a river that runs through it which gives a feel of Venice. There are many nice restaurants. There was a marathon while we were there. We enjoyed walking along the art market that is open every Sunday morning. We also took a very pleasant boat ride around the lake. It was very sunny weekend.

This is part of our 2-week French language trip in Lyon.

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We had a pretty relaxing time in Dijon visiting gardens and some pretty government buildings.

This is part of our 2-week French language trip in Lyon.

Cuisine: Italian in Wan Chai
My rating: 3
Food: 3
Service: 3
Atmosphere: 3
Price per person: HKD 100

Address and tel.no
G/F 8 Queen's Road East
+852 2527-8999

Review:
A nice simple Cafe in Wan Chai, affordable price. We had spaghetti and coffee.