Michael Crichton Has Passed Away

Photo source: Michael Crichton - Wikipedia

I was driving home from the market this morning when hubby called to say that one of my favourite authors, Michael Crichton, has passed away at the age of 66 from throat cancer. It was a shock to me. The first thing I thought was, "Oh no, no more new books from Michael Crichton." 

A medical doctor by profession, Michael Crichton was a prolific writer and filmmaker. He was most well-known for 'Jurassic Park', 'The Lost World', 'The Andromeda Strain', 'Sphere', 'Congo', 'The Great Train Robbery', 'The Terminal Man', 'State of Fear', 'Prey', 'Disclosure', 'Timeline'.....the list goes on.

He was also the creator and executive producer of the NBC program "E.R.," which began its 15-year run in 1994 and was based on his early experience in medicine. He also co-wrote 'Twister'.

He said of himself: "I was the weird kid who wrote extra assignments the teacher didn't ask for."

And.....he was a giant. At 6 feet 9, and married five times, I bet he was the one his friends and family called when they needed light bulbs replaced. 

His demise is a loss to the industry and me, personally, as I would no longer be able to look forward to his next book. I'm going to miss him. My deepest condolence to his family.

Hotel Review: GoodHope Inn, Penang

Good morning, everyone (yawn!). Well, not exactly morning, since it's 11:47am now. But hey, I just woke up an hour ago, so I'm entitled to my morning. 

We stayed at GoodHope Inn, a place we've never tried before....I like to try different hotels just as I like trying different food all the time.

GoodHope is located at Jalan Kelawei, next to Evergreen Laurel Hotel. It is a modest 3-storey inn, modified from an apartment. 

What I like about it:

- It's clean and well maintained.

- Central and convenient location to Gurney Drive, Pulau Tikus and town, where all the wonderful food is.

- Reasonable rate, at RM85 nett per night 

What I don't like about it:

- Parking is inconvenient. 

There's limited parking space......only ten cars can park inside the premises. The staff at the reception told us that we could park at the hotel next door, from 9pm to 10am the next morning, for RM2. He said they will reimburse us the parking fee when we check out.

On the surface, the parking deal looks ok. But being on holiday, we discovered that we do not wake up before 10am. We woke up at 10:40am the  next morning, and hubby dashed out to remove his car without combing his hair or changing. 

The next night we wanted to park outside the hotel at the city council parking bays, but were told that it's not safe to do so. Apparently, the chances of having our car's window smashed and broken into are very high. 

On the whole, we felt very inconvenienced. I guess it didn't help that it was raining cats and dogs and we had our shoes soaked wet in two inches of water walking from the car to the hotel.

Book Review: The Simple Truth by David Baldacci

David Baldacci is one of my favourite authors, besides Michael Crichton and Stephen King. I've devoured all their books. 

The Simple Truth tells the story of John Fiske, a former cop turned attorney whose investigation into the death of his estranged brother led him into the murky grounds of corruption in the powers that be.

Michael Fiske was a lawyer, and worked in the Supreme Court in Washington DC, the highest court in America. He had stolen a prison letter from Rufus Harm, a death row inmate, and sealed his own fate. Now John has to find out what his brother's death has to do with a crime that Rufus Harm committed twenty-five years before.

The story flows smoothly enough, with all the usual actions taking place, plot twists and what not. To read a synopsis and review of this book, please visit Amazon.com.