mewi kwismas!

The whole family is present this Christmas and it’s the second time in many years. Moving on, I have finished stieg larrson’s millennium trilogy so I have all the time in the world to read short novels. I just started out with one of Tate Hallaway’s zombie books. But, since I have very limited rest days, I decided to rummage through my niece’s laptop and found tons of movies. So, to make the long story short I stumbled upon this dvd rip entitled the lovely bones. I knew it was another book adaptation that’s why t’was one of those really nice flicks. Imagine a story written or narrated from the murder victim’s point of view? Of course nothing gets eerier than that right? I liked it and I highly recommend the movie to people to change their world views about life and living.

i don't need a blog title

my heart sank after i saw the aftermath of typhoon 'sendong in Cagayan. whilst majority are busy with christmas shopping, the rest of the country is mourning. it only shows how 'unprepared' the country is during calamities. it's always the same and it has been since i was kid. that's possibly the reason why we couldn't move forward as far as our economy is concerned, our country is one of those in asia that's so calamity stricken. that's also why we don't even have enough calamity funds because whilst the country is still in the rehabilitation stage, here goes another typhoon. i figured, when i was in singapore, the reason why their country is progressive it's because they are not disaster stricken like our country which only means they could use their budget towards other government projects whilst we're wallowing with debt from World Bank. moving on, enough of the heavy stuff.

moving on,
i just downloaded ebooks from ebuks ni juyzi.  i downloaded ebooks by cornelia funke, mitch albom, tate hallaway etc. i'd be very busy for sure.

anyways, two weeks ago i watched this movie suck which was about a struggling rock bank. their bassist hooked up with a vampire so he was transformed into one. later on. the rest of his band mates were turned as well. they enjoyed commercial success afterwards. as soon as the vampire creator was vanquished they all came back to their normal selves. alice cooper was one of the queer vamps, he also happened to be a bar owner. overall, t'was entertaining for a rock chick like me. i just love queerness.

by the way i was able to attend the first leg of the simbang gabi (evening mass) last week along with my sister and a friend of ours after work.


furthermore, instead of heading off to the salon to have my re-bonded hair retouched, i bought this re-bonding kit for P180 called matrix opti. it came with a smoothening cream and conditioning neutralizer. good thing i already have a hair dryer and straightening iron available so it saved me ample salon time and money by retouching my re-bonded hair at home. it's only advisable if the regrown hair is 4 inches or longer. remember, the purpose of the kit is just to retouch the ugly part of the hair. it took me roughly 3-4 hours only. my sister applied the smoothening creme. seriously, it was really a tedious job because my hair is long. but then, the result was satisfactory because i followed the instructions religiously. the trick is, follow the instruction correctly most especially the time you have to spend for each step as it's crucial.

now i moved on

i woke up at about 3:30 in the morning and had difficulty going back to bed. i guess it's just my body clock. the cold weather is really the reason why i sleep a lot during the weekend. sometimes, i feel like a robot with wake up and sleep switch located in my nape. 

as promised, i'll blog about stieg larsson's the girl who kicked the hornet's nest which i just finished reading about a week ago. sorry, i've lost track of time.

the girl with a dragon tattoo is about harriet vanger's disappearance whilst the girl who kicked the hornet's nest is about the complications thereafter. berger moved to SMP as the new editor-in-chief but later on moved back to millenium; blomkvist's never ending support for lisbeth and even asked her sister annika, a women's rights lawyer to stand up in court in lisbeth's defense; the killing of zalachenko, lisbeth's biological father who happened to be an ex-russian spy; the face up of lisbeth and his half brother niederman (which was just divulged later in the book); and last but not the least, lisbeth's acquittal from all charges against her. she then regained her civil rights which she was robbed off since childhood. the state eventually protected her father and locked her up in a mental asylum. it was a real surprise that annika pulled it off being lisbeth's lawyer although it wasn't expected at first due to her lack of expertise. reading the book resembled watching a movie about court trials. imagine being locked up in a mental asylum just to protect an influential and true enemy of the state. the book was political in nature and described what was the political climate in sweden back then by using fictional characters.

my latest read, the third book the girl who played with fire is also as interesting as the other two books except that lisbeth is now well off and now able to afford travelling, has her own company called wasps enterprises which was derived from her alias as a high profile hacker.

moving on, my sister and i watched breaking dawn yesterday (finally!). i was really yearning to watch that darn flick being a fan of stephanie meyer. the movie will be last shown on november 30 and that explains why i really squished it in my haphazard schedule hehe.

breaking dawn (part 1)

the movie opened with jacob brooding over bella's upcoming wedding with no one else but edward. his father tried to run after him and under the rain he picked up and read the wedding invitation which was drenched in water.

the movie showcased bella and edwards unyielding love for each other. then came the wedding, kirsten stewart did lose weight in the movie although she's been lanky before. i guess it's 'cuz she need to look really feeble. the wedding was whimsical and dark at the same time because of the filter use in making the movie. going back, bella wore this old fashioned wedding dress paired with a very long veil. her hair was accentuated with this hair clip which was from her parents handed to her on her wedding day. bella was so scared as she walk down the aisle but when she saw edward all her fears ceased. jacob paid herna visit which made her very happy but he suddenly got upset with bella's decision to give her life away to edward when the time comes. so, he was pulled by his wolf family away from the wedding.

the couple spent their honeymoon in rio de janeiro, in isle isme, edward's mother's vacation home. the honeymoon was just cut short after bella's unexpected pregnancy. the two went back to forks with bella's bulging tummy and aggravating health condition. jacob went to the cullens abode to check on bella just to find that her condition is serious. edward was guilty all along and been blaming himself since they got back from rio asked jacob to convince bella to get rid of the child which bella didn't as expected. the wolf pack were divided and alliance were form. jacob veered away from sam's pack, seth and leah followed suit. bella died after giving birth to renesmee but edward's venom revived her after it was injected to her before her heart stopped. bella gave birth to beautiful baby girl they names renemee. edward disclosed to bella that jacob has imprinted on renesmee, which means anyone who was imprinted on cannot be harmed by anyone from the wolf pack. the movie ended with bella's transformation, she opened her eyes now in crimson.

i liked the movie because there was not much alterations and the book was followed religiously. except that it was cut short to fit the two hour movie duration. well, i'll be waiting for part 2.

new girl

i watched new girl in ETC last saturday night (originally aired in fox) and yeah i liked it. i guess i have a new sitcom to look forward to. i miss our cable tv but what the heck i only watch quite a few channels so it doesn't really help having one. new girl stars this girl from 500 days of summer (Zooey Deschanel). it's a boring flick but she made the movie quite interesting. here's a li'l something about the sitcom according to my friend wiki..

Plot

The series stars Zooey Deschanel as Jessica "Jess" Day, a well-liked, bubbly woman in her late 20s who is trying to get over her breakup with her boyfriend after he cheats on her. She eventually finds a new place to stay when she moves in with three guys: Nick, a bartender; Schmidt, a professional and modern-day Casanova; and Winston, a former basketball player. Rounding out this unlikely bunch is Jessica's street-smart model friend Cece.

Main cast

* Zooey Deschanel as Jessica "Jess" Day, the eponymous "new girl." She is a teacher in her late 20s who moves in with three guys in an apartment she found on Craigslist after a messy break-up with her boyfriend.
* Jake Johnson as Nick Miller, one of Jess's new roommates.[5] Nick is a bartender who has also gone through a slightly-less-recent break up. He is revealed to be thirty and originally from Chicago. He dropped out three semesters shy of his law degree.
* Max Greenfield as Schmidt, one of Jess's new roommates. Schmidt is the stereotypical ladies man and so-called "douche bag" of the group.
* Lamorne Morris as Winston Bishop, one of Jess's new roommates and the original "missing" roommate that left room for Jess to move in. Winston returns from playing basketball in Latvia in the second episode.
* Hannah Simone as Cece Meyers, Jess' childhood best friend and a model.

looking forward to

i was scouring the net yesterday trying to see if stephanie meyer has a new novel. i stumbled upon a lot of forums discussing about meyer's book written under edward's point of view. rumor has it that the book will be called burning dusk. i don't know where the hell those rumors came from because the book's title is called midnight sun.

after googling i found out that meyer indeed has a new book called dusk: arrows and a rose. i'm excited again and i'm so eager to download another one of her wonderful novels. yeah, am really a fan since after i read all of her books. breaking dawn and the host to name a few of my faves.

i'm also excited to watch breaking dawn the movie. i'm just curious actually although i'm expecting the book is gonna be so much better than celluloid as usual. everything in a book is much more intricate. books let your mind yonder and reading freezes time in my perspective of course.

i'm almost done with larsson's 500+ pages book the girl who kicked the hornet's nest. things are getting more intense so am saving the best(est) for last. wrarr!

dusk: arrows and a rose...anyone who has the ebook? please let me know lol.

Blue Eyes

Blue Eyes
Cary Brothers

Wish enough, wise man'll tell you a lie
Window broke, torn up screens
Who'd have thought that you'd dream
Of a single tragic scene

I just wanna sing a song with you
I just want to take it off of you

Cause Blue Eyes
You are all that I need
Cause Blue Eyes
You’re the sweet to my mean

Fess it up, dot on the palm of your hand
I can help you to stand
Saved it up for this dance
Tell me all the things you can

I just wanna sing a song with you
I just wanna be the one that's true

Cause Blue Eyes
You’re the secret I keep
Cause Blue Eyes

All the lights on and you are alive
But you can't point the way to your heart
So sublime, when the stars are aligned
But you don't know
You don't know the greatness you are

Cause Blue Eyes
You are destiny's scene
Cause Blue Eyes
I just wanna be the one

I just wanna sing a song with you
I just wanna get it on with you

Cause Blue Eyes
You’re the secret I keep
Cause Blue Eyes
I just wanna sing a song with you…

so long and so forth

i just finished reading stieg larrsen's the girl with a dragon tattoo. my fave character, the brilliant Lisbeth Salander was tasked to join Blomkvist in his quest to find who murdered business tycoon Vanger's favorite niece Harriet Vanger.  the next book the girl who  kicked the hornet's nest rocked better, Lisbeth was almost killed by his biological father Bodin. well, it's 500+ pages so i know i'm gonna need more time.

some jinx

i lost my phone last friday after a pickpocket stole it and it took me a while to get over it.  i think our law making bodies should come up with better laws to penalize offenders. it's just frustrating because my qwerty phone just turned a year old last july and i just finished off paying for it (credit card installment).  i guess i just need to deal with it and learn from it.

So your phone was lost or stolen? Get even. Disable it. Here are some the steps:

1.) If you are a postpaid subscriber, immediately inform your Cellular Mobile Telephone System (CMTS) service provider (Globe, Smart, Sun Cellular) about the loss. The CMTS operator can block the SIM card to ensure that you will not be charged for further calls made on the phone.

2.) Both prepaid and postpaid subscribers should go to the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to have your phone's IMEI disabled.
* Make sure that you have a copy of your phone's IMEI prior to its loss. You can access your IMEI by pressing *#06#. It is the 15-digit number inside your phone, usually located near where the SIM card is placed.

3.) The NTC will prepare the order to block your phone to be sent to all CMTS operators. Blocked IMEIs may be verified on the NTC website http://www.ntc.gov.ph/. (http://portal.ntc.gov.ph/wps/portal)
The blocking will be done within 24 hours after receipt of the NTC order. It usually takes effect within a day, or a week at most.

Once the phone is blocked, the words "SIM registration failed" will appear on the phone every time one tries to access it.

Disabled or blocked phones may be unblocked or "white-listed." Again, the order must come from the NTC. (You may call the NTC's One Stop Public Assistance Center, or Ospac, at 926-7722 or 436-7722, or e-mail ospac@ntc.gov.ph.

You will need these documents: affidavit of ownership, affidavit of loss (available at the NTC office), two valid identification cards (passport, driver's license, company or school ID, etc.), and proof of ownership (purchase receipt or bar code sticker of the phone's original box). If you do not have proof of ownership, a police certificate stating that your phone has been stolen will do.

in my case, i went to NTC yesterday. i was given the affidavit then had it notarized. i had the original receipt along with the IMEI/serial number, photocopy it along with your valid photo id. you may either present a photocopy of your passport or two of your secondary ids such as SSS, TIN. later on i'll set up a link so you can just download it and save you time. once the form is handed over to you it's mandatory that you go to the nearest notary public office so they notarize it for you. the photocopies of your valid ids must be attached to the original affidavit given by NTC and there you go just wait 5 business days for the IMEI & SIM card to be blocked. to confirm if, you may either call NTC, email or check their website to confirm if the IMEI/SIM blocking has occurred. my stupid mistake was, i have an ms word file kept in my phone which has all my passwords so i immediately changed my passwords for all of my online accounts etc.  after all the trouble, my sister looked for a brand new & affordable qwerty phones. to make the long story short, i bought this samsung gt s3353 qwerty and wifi phone for a very affordable cost. i got it for less than 4k.i thought, why settle for expensive phones? in this country, if you're a commuter don't buy anything expensive so you won't fret too much in the event you lose it or someone stole it. 

samsung gt s3353 may not be as functional as my beloved nokia e7 but nonetheless, it's a pretty good match because it's also qwerty. however, it doesn't have ms office which i don't mind because i use the computer a lot anyways. the quality of the camera may not be that good compared to nokia phones so don't expect much.

the short second life of bree tanner : an eclipse novel

i finished reading the short second life of bree tanner last night and as promised i will write about the book once i'm done. the short second life of bree tanner is a novel written for eclipse with bree tanner talking. it's kinda like midnight sun which was written from edward's point of view. the book eventually put bree tanner in the limelight , after she was transformed into a newborn. she was acquainted with diego, who was quick to learn that they look like a disco ball once placed under the rays of the sun and that they will not turn into ashes like what riley instilled in their minds onset. diego also discovered that a stake in the heart won't kill them because they're as hard as a stone like what myths say about vampires and that they don't have the capacity to sleep thus a coffin won't be necessary. diego was turned into a newborn when he was eighteen while bree when she was about to turn sixteen. the two became good friends and they both found out that riley created the newborns to fight the 'yellow-eyes' (pertaining to the cullens) and the kids don't even know what's the real purpose behind it. diego left riley's coven before the training and was supposed to go on surveillance yet never returned. bree was con into believing that diego will meet them. on the other hand, fred,  riley's must trusted newborn, left the group right before the attack ensued since he's already pretty much aware they will lose whatever battle riley is up to. fred advised bree to meet him up in vancouver and if she will not arrive in an hour he will leave. the two made an agreement although bree still got diego in mind--she thought about tagging diego along once they see each other. in the book it appeared that bree's love interest was diego. bree was allergic to touch until he met diego and realized in her vampire form that touching feels good and if she had known that when she was still human she could've not avoided such physical contact. i guess you really need to be odd to qualify as a vampire eh? to make the long story short, bree surrendered. bree was caught by carlisle and was about to be killed but she begged not to since she doesn't want to fight and unaware of their purpose neither. carlisle decided not to kill bree to jasper's dismay because such action will endanger them once the volturi finds out. bree told the volturi that they were sent by riley and victoria. 

as mentioned in eclipse, no matter how hard the cullens tried for the volturi to spare bree's life they've already made a decision. carlisle even quoted that in seattle anyone could create a newborn but in forks such rule only applies provided the newborn is able to practice self-control. bree learned that the red-haired guy is a mind reader (as riley once advised) and happened to be edward so she decided to pre select some of the details she provided to jane and the rest for edward to read through her thoughts. bree left for edward to read to not hurt fred in case they encounter him. bree prepared for her death since she realized that diego was killed by victoria even before the attack began and that they were fooled and betrayed by riley from the start. edward whispered to bree 'don't watch.' bree combusted. the end. i was just wondering how come stephanie chose to write about bree instead of riley.

+ - +

moving on, my sister and i bought this nail clipper yesterday for our dog fiona. 

bored

i am a fan of stephanie meyer and yeah i don't care if stephen king disses her lol. honestly, i really like her writing style because she's good with words. my latest read is another one from stephanie called the short second life of bree tanner : an eclipse novel which came out (if am not mistaken) last june. it's about bree, the youngest amongst the new breed of vamps created by riley, victoria's brainwashed turned-into-a-vampire-partner in the novel eclipse.

whereabouts---

the sky is clear and possibly the typhoon has eluded the north. this country is just so typhoon stricken and yeah what's new right? the painters finished painting the exterior of our house last week making the house pop. i love it. the house never looked so good from the outside. i have finished reading the host and it was out there.

the host...

wanderer was assigned to a host named melanie stryder. every soul (resembles a centipede except the silver color) is carefully placed into a human body through a short incision below the back of the neck. the human body will then serve as a host thus coined the book's title. the earth was invaded by their kind because we lost the war with the seekers (aliens). they have their own 'terms' for whatever we have on earth such as a healing facility or hospital; a healer or doctor; comforter, a shrink...and so on and so forth. during wanderer's first day in melanie's body, she was confused because she's able to speak with melanie through thoughts. melanie is able to show picture/scenes of her life before she jumped off the elevator to wanderer.

wanderer was introduced to jared, melanie's partner (in her past life) and jamie, her little brother through memories stored in melanie's brain thus explained the strong urge for wanderer to find her family whatever it takes. wanderer's ordeal in melanie's body almost cost her life hadn't jeb, (melanie's blood uncle) found her in the dessert. jeb took wanderer to their cave to the human's strong disapproval because they believe that, she will serve as bait for the seekers to find them. in the long run, wanderer was then accepted by the humans after learning melanie is still somewhere inside her despite being a host for a soul. wanda (a nickname given by jeb to wanderer) has a soft spot for jamie because of melanie. through jamie, jared learned that melanie still exist and the former's hostility turned into compassion. one night, wanda went to a healing facility, purposely hurt herself to show her wounds and scratches so she could steal medicines for jamie who was hurt during one of their raids, his wound was infected and wanda instinctively volunteered to get medications for the poor kid.

wanda's solution (so humans and her kind won't be hurt) was to surgically remove the soul from the host and transport it to another planet. wanda instructed the rest of his human family to steal excess cryo tanks as placeholders for souls once taken out from its host. wanda requested from a human doctor to send her soul to this flower planet as she would enjoy it there but to ian's anger and dispproval because she loves wanda and refuses to be separated from her neither regardless which form she takes. in the end jamie joined in of the raids and picked a host for wanda's soul, the body which most likely resembles melanie, a human body which no longer belongs to anyone. the story ended fairly--ian got her wanda in a different host while jared recovered her melanie.

some excerpt from the books..

wanda's past lives:

“She's lived on six planets.”
“I heard seven.”
“I heard she's never lived two terms as the same host species.”
“Is that possible?”
“She's been almost everything. A Flower, a Bear, a Spider –”
“A See Weed, a Bat –”
“Even a Dragon!”
“I don't believe it–not seven planets.”


other stuff i read from the book:

- Burns Living Flowers, Cloud Spinner, Petals Open to the Moon---quite a few names of souls occupying a host.
- no pain, an anaesthesia.
- clean, liquid to clean wounds (kinda like hydrogen peroxide i guess).
- Spiders and Dragons, Fire World,Blind World, Planet of the Bats-- names of some of the planets

Nuninoo..busybee

I never had the chance to read and reunite with my bookworm self in a long time because my work enchained me in years. The infamous Ipad has encourage me to read more because it's so convenient to download ebooks and read it at the same time. You don't have to bring along bulky books as you go. You can even customize your library and create your own book shelf. The best part--you need not have any night light if you wish to read night time. Technology never cease to fascinate me. Moving on, I will be starting my new read as i finish packing our stuff and clean up our soon-be-gone flat. We'll say bye bye after dwelling in this dungeon for many years. I missed living in our own house where i could work out and jog since i don't go boxing anymore. So, to keep myself still fit, i came up with my own 30min work out.

I'll be busy with another stephanie meyer book called the host . Then, Anne Rice's vampire chronicles. 

The Biggest Loser (Philippine Edition)...

I'm yearning to watch the show during weekdays and never wanna miss a beat. I think it's one of the best shows in this country marred by variety/game shows. Being fat isn't something unacceptable BUT the health risks involved is always something to consider. I know for a fact because i used to be 'bigger' and losing weight is one of the best things that happened to me. Believe me, there's nothing more satisfying than buying a new pair of jeans because you need something smaller. It's really amusing. The show is just filled with suspense sometimes that they will leave the rest of the outcome 'til the next episode arrgh! It makes my heart throb right next to playing Angry Birds hehe. Coach Jim is just so cool to watch, i think he's just so calm and steady amidst all the stress :)

Speaking of Angry Birds, this made me laugh.

read on

i have been on hiatus in a while. i have finished stephanie meyer's breaking dawn book whilst chilling out up north last month. i'm pretty excited with the movie. i'm curious with the movie adaptation. i'm a fan of the twilight sequels because i love darkness and the beauty that lurks behind it. i think breaking dawn is the best among the four books, it was entertaining and heart throbbing at times especially when the story is almost coming to a close, jacob's character added humour to it.

i know it won't be a spoiler to divulge how the book ended because it's all over the net anyways. jacob and bella did not end up together because bella married her beloved edward cullen. jacob accepted his defeat but did not leave bella's side until the very moment she has turned into a vampire herself since she was not able to endure giving birth to renesmee, bella and edward's firstborn. bella did conceive because she was still human when she got pregnant which only took days since their honeymoon in an island rio de janeiro  (isle esme- named after ed's mom esme). edward injected his vampire venom to bella's system before her heartbeat stops. jacob remained bella's friend after all and bella was furious after learning that jake imprinted on her daughter renesmee. edward did not refuse because once a wolf imprints on someone, she will be protected forever. 

Back homey and yeah it's so init!

It's now officially five days since i got back from singapore after staying there for couple of months and yeah i missed the comforts of home big time. Leaving singapore for a while has been bitter sweet. It has turned to be my second home. My welcome home present? my sister and i were greeted by tip monger cab drivers in NAIA asking for tip (in 'dollars') just for merely loading our luggages. Welcome back to the Philippines.

I love my homeland, but, i couldn't help but compare philippines from singapore. In sg, they don't have cabbie drivers asking for tips as it's illegal and they could get penalized for doing so. There's just one instance we came across a lady cab driver who was kinda rude for blaming us that we did not get to the right location but it was solely due to language barrier. She barely speaks english and we couldn't understand her neither as she spells the word 'brighton drive' as if converting it to chinese characters. Geesh. If we wish to complain 'untie' (this is what they call elderlies there) she will definitely be laid off and we don't want to do that because we're compassionate people despite her 'attitude.' But then, having an attitude is not always worth forgiving lol. Going back, we need to impose harsher punishments to offenders so they will learn to obey and respect the law. 

So, what did i miss?

Oh yeah, the snarling traffic jams. I missed halo-halo because singapore's iced kachang won't be a match neither. Our halo-halo is truly the best and siopao as well. I missed mcdo (cuz it's quite costly in sg and i'd rather spend money in hawkers which is absolutely tasteful and cheap). Last but not least, our sweet cakes, hello Red Ribbon Cakes and Goldilocks. 

Changes.

Since we got home, my sister and I started rummaging through our old stuff and decided to throw those things we won't be needing anymore like sorting out re-usable papers and cleaning up our closet. Our flat has turned smaller because houses in sg are have with huge rooms and shifting from spacious HDB units back to our studio size unit again became a challenge. So, to address the 'space concern' we decided to discard those boxes on top of our cupboards, concealed the eye sore electrical wires then moved some fixtures. Our flat definitely looked bigger than it used to. We'll enjoy our space for now and our new Belkin router. And yeah if there's one important thing I learned in sg that's the seamless unlimited wifi in each household which we decided to adapt here in our flat. My sister spearheaded that we should've done this long before it's just that I never thought how convenient it was back then.

Moving on, the heat wave isn't over yet although it's a little more tolerable compared last week. Where to next? We're off to the city of pines in hours time to chill and to see the new puppies! I'm excited. It's been years since we had pups to snuggle e? As an end note, it's always good to be back!

           

Love and Other Drugs (2010)

Main Cast

Jake Gyllenhaal as Jamie Randall
Anne Hathaway as Maggie Murdock
Josh Gad as Josh Randall
Judy Greer as Cindy
Gabriel Macht as Trey Hannigan
Oliver Platt as Bruce Jackson
Hank Azaria as Dr. Knight


Love and Other Drugs (2010), Comedy-Drama

i'ts been a while since wrote a blog about movies so here it is.

love & other drugs is based on a non-fiction book Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman by Jamie Reidy. the movie topbilled by Jake Gyllenhaal (Jamie Randall) and Anne Hathaway (Maggie Murdock).

on the onset of the movie, jamie, a salesman  for an electronic shop was fired from his job after sleeping with his boss' girlfriend. jamie came from a well off family and has a brother named Josh (Josh Randall) who later on told their parents that jamie just lost his job. Josh on the other hand helped Jamie to become a MedRep. jamie started training with pfizer and was paired with his mentor Bruce (Oliver Platt) who's been persuading him to go for the "big league" in Chicago. jamie used his appeal with women to get through to Dr. Knight (Hank Azaria) and slept with the doctor's secretary. jamie's main goal is to get Dr. Knight (Hank Azaria) prescribe Zoloft to his patients instead of Prozac and all the other doctors will follow his lead. jamie offered dr. knight 1000$ worth of check so he could 'shadow' him which the doctor eventually accepted. jamie met maggie (Anne Hathaway) one day during her apppointment with dr. knight. jamie was advised by knight to tell his patients he's an intern 'if' asked. maggie is on her earliest stage of parkinson's disease (Parkinson's disease (also known as Parkinson disease, Parkinson's, idiopathic parkinsonism, primary parkinsonism, PD, or paralysis agitans) is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system). in short it her condition affects her movements and that her hands gets shaky most of the time especially when she's tensed/nervous. maggie randomly asked dr. knight about her breast problem and without further ado exposed her left breast to the doctor so he could have a look. knight then advised maggie it's just a spider bite as jamie peeks through. maggie later on learned that jamie isn't an intern but a medrep upon seeing his pfizer samples at the carpark then hits him with her handbag. maggie even took a snapshot of jamie to his surprise thinking what'll that serve for. jamie became interested with maggie and just knew her by her last name because of her appointment with dr. knight. jamie asked one of knight's nurses with whom he slept with for maggie's number making her believe that it's for business purposes while it's against their protocol to disclose such details. jamie succeeded anyways and later on made a phonecall to maggie and arranged a date which later on ended up into a one night stand at maggie's flat. the two then started seeing each other more often and began to develop a relationship without any commitment involved as per maggie's refusal. Jamie at one point tried to convince Maggie to have a fuller relationship with him, but she incessantly refused. during the later part of the movie, jamie asked maggie to go to a medical conference with him in Chicago. While at the conference she is invited to a Parkinson's convention across the street. She is moved by the people and their stories. She asks Jamie to come over and join her and he meets a man whose wife is in the final stages of the disease. Jamie asks for advice about Maggie, and the man tells him to run. This shakes Jamie. After the convention, Maggie tells him how much she loves him. Jamie starts researching Parkinson's and pushing Knight for information on specialists. He starts taking Maggie to a specialist and paying for her to have tests done. At one office Jamie becomes upset because their appointment was rescheduled after they had flown in to see the doctor. While Jamie is yelling at the receptionist, Maggie walks out. They fight and Maggie says there is no cure. Maggie sees that Jamie can only love her with the hope that one day there will be a cure, and so she breaks up with him.

the movie ended well with Maggie and Jamie living together. Jamie declined the Chicago promotion and looking at enrolling in medical school. i liked the movie because it wasn't just your ordinary hollywood flick. i mean, who would've have thought about infusing viagra, parkinson's disease and the plight of medreps in the states in one movie right? there's a lot of stuff in the movie that you won't get bored at all. at first, i was just thinking that maybe anne hathaway went topless so she gets more offers but what the heck cuz the movie actually asked for it not because it's something to just draw people's curiously (athough it did partly). i can say it's a movie worth watching as it's entertaining and not boring at all ;) i mean am a fan of indie flicks and those films with depth but i thought movies are supposed to entertain if not steer you away from reality for a while. so, just shove that popcorn in the microwave and get ready to slouch on your couch for a while. Love and Other Drugs is pretty informative and entertaining.

a calendar day older

our cute looking birthday cakes!

Today's the first time my sister and i celebrated our birthday here abroad. The last birthday we had was in vigan, ilocos sur which was 10 hours away from manila. We joked around back then that on our next birthday should be either in thailand or anywhere overseas. What the heck, we made it happen thank God. We had bought pre-birthday cakes yesterday. We went to thomson plaza to grab ourselves one slice each of tiramisu and cheesecake for 3.50sgd a piece and yeah t'was satisfying 'cuz singaporean cakes are not so sweet compared to cakes we have back home.  We went to the cathedral of good shepherd in victoria street corner bras basah road to thank the almighty for another year. The homily was about Christ's TLC (yep tender love & care).

My sister and i realized that following landmarks and street signs from a map is a whole lot easier than rely on road/street directions say streetdirectory.com or google. Walking is one of the best way to get around here in singapore. we also burned those calories we gained by having chicken rice for lunch at the funan digital mall 's food court early today. The funan mall by the way is just walks away from the church. I didn't even realized we've reached that darn mall already because we were both busy trying to figure out where we're located looking at the map hadn't my sister said we've reached funan. Why is everything different in real life huh?

We checked out how much the gadgets cost not that we're planning to buy, just curious that's all lol. It's a haven for gadget buffs as it houses almost all tech gadgets there is from ground 'til the upper level. We found that they sell cheaper and cuter bubble earphones for 9.90sgd (about Php300+ back home) yet we bought our philips earplugs for a hefty Php800+! (about 25sgd). If you have a lot of money to shell out for gadgets, this is the place to be. At the ground floor, they also sell those easy heating tea kettles commonly used here in SG.  Along the way, we passed by the peninsula plaza, a place for myanmar citizens. It's like this, if we pinoys frequent lucky plaza in orchard, it's the peninsula plaza for them. 

The Peninsula Plaza is also housed to printing & photocopy centers. 

The Esplanade, Marina Bay, Boats of River Quay..

Good thing it's a weekday so the marina bay area isn't crowded. We enjoyed having ice cream sandwich whilst feeling the afternoon breeze in the beautiful bay area. No matter how tired we were after walking around, our tiredness were all flushed away after seeing the beautiful bay. Last itinerary for the day, Makansutra glutton's bay..

There's just one reason why we came back to makansutra--their chicken aglio olio!  It was well worth it for 6sgd. The pasta is served with a generous slab og chicken which reminds me of world chicken back home. We paired the pasta with some tamarind juice and yeah it was a weird match. We went home around 7PM. We had a lovely birthday.

On our way home, we saw this old woman (she's already hunch back due to old age) rushing herself to get to the train station. It was really heartbreaking because she stopped and rested somewhere, breathless and panting yet nobody cared. It was disconcerting. I hope the Singaporean government would come up with better options for senior citizens so they need not work anymore.

easter morning

the picturesque Singapore Botanic Garden in Cluny Road..

Happy easter world!

My routine's changed;  back home, i usually sleep really late and i mean 9 p.m. is an early time to doze off then wake up almost lunchtime. now, i wake up as early as 6 or 7am, read early morning news courtesy of Twitter whilst sipping hot coffee i brewed myself. 

what i love most living here in sg is that people cannot live without wi-fi and it would be weird for one household not to have wi-fi access as it's usually bundled with cable tv (they have here singtel, starhub etc). my e71 is so useful here because i need not have monthly subscription to have mobile data access.

anways, moving on, had a long day yesterday. my sister and i went to sg botanic garden and yeah the info we gathered online wasn't helpful as always. according to the instruction we need to alight at aft peirson and yeah we WALKED far including crossing overpass decked out in jeans and our backpacks just to found out that the botanic garden was literally a park and everyone else wore comfy clothing while we drench ourselves in sweat. haiizz. damn.

the botanic garden wasn't as promising. yeah, what do you expect from parks on a saturday right? the park was vast that you really need to be decked out in comfortable clothes like shorts and sleeveless to endure the heat. the greeneries was refreshing and the view of the lake made me just wanna sit back and read a book hadn't for the heat of the sun which left me more sunburnt. i don't think i'd ever regain my original color so long as we're here in sg because you need to endure a lot of walking and if streetdirectory.com says the place you're looking for is just nearby, trust me, they have a different definition of what 'nearby' means because for them it can be as near as 200 meters! oh good lord. i had hotdog sandwich with beef sauce paired with bottled orange juice at the botanic garden for total 9sgd and boy i was stuffed that i needed to walk a few more.

the ever busy Orchard Road..

afterwards, we headed off to tanglin mall where we checked out little shops (majority of which are for children like toy stores, kids clothing etc) and of course the mall's food court where my sister had some chicken rice thai version (deep fried chicken with sweet chillies) which she found really delectable for $4 while i suit myself with some blueberry shakes cuz i was still stuffed when we got to the mall.

while my sister is having lunch and myself sipping the brain freezing blueberry, i can't help but notice how our skin color has changed from fair to really bronze although it looked really classic and very malayan. a lot of local men were staring at me and my sister maybe it's cuz they coudn't figure if we're malaysians or singaporeans and their adorning eyes made me really think if our suntanned skin worked to our advantage hehe.

the busy Chinatown

here in s'pore, malaysians usually decked out fully covered from head to toe like the typical

muslims you see in quiapo (a place in manila predominantly populated by muslims since it houses one of their mosques), while singaporeans are the typical chinese you see everywhere else. so, if you're pinoy, unless you're a muslim, you can wear any clothes you want in this country which makes it obvious that you're not malaysian if you don't have cloth covering your head and you sport western clothing like jeans, tee, skirt and so on.

this is what i love about being a catholic, that, we are not bound and compelled with strict religious practices. we are free to wear and eat anything we want as long as it's not holy week because it's a practice for catholics to refrain from eating meat (as much as possible although not strictly imposed) during holy week as a form of abstinence/sacrifice.

hmm..i'm fleeting away again. so, going back, after tanglin we headed then to orchard road by

foot and we discovered that if you walk straight ahead from tanglin then turn right you'll be walking the streets of orchard road. we alighted at the dhoby gaut interchange towards harbourfront from orchart station to reach chinatown. we took the wrong exit but fortunately upon strolling around saw this small shop in the people's park complex that sells souvenir items. we bought 12pcs. of keychains for $10 and 4 for $10 fridge magnets.

my sister and i collect magnets for fridge by the way as a hobby

and so far we have collected one from boracay, puerto gallera, vigan, bohol and the singapore fridge magnet will add to our collection. we're looking to travel across asia to purchase more ;)

chinatown is the best place to shop for eccentric and eclectic souvenir items although they're quite pricey. yeah, what do you expect right? singapore is a tourist spot. i heard one caucasian lady as she left one of the stalls around murmuring "it's too expensive for an earring." i thought the philippines still sells cheaper souvenir items compared here because we don't have bucks :D

we had some pork satay (which tasted like bbq except for the sauce) and again mango pudding ;)

my sister complained that her feet ached and i can't deny mine ached as well (but it was tolerable though). overall, i had a great time. we're all set and prob'ly ready to go home to our homeland in few weeks since we have purchased pasalubongs (souvenir items) already!

what's on my list hmmm...rest for a week while i get my final pay check from my former workplace, go on a short vacation to baguio then possibly fly to malaysia..let's see ;)

homesick(o)

Today is good friday and in the Philippines, the holy week is widely observed since the country is predominantly catholic. here in SG, i don't think they observe it as much as we do i guess it's because most of them are Buddhist. it doesn't make any difference really whether it's holy week or not here. it's always quiet and places are barely filled with people (except the train stations). i'm freakin' bored and i've been yearning to go home. a lot of things happened since we left home; our oldest dog harriet recently passed away which was the saddest news we've heard since we lived here in SG. i know we could've expected that since she's really old and was 77years old in dog years/11 in human years.  life is a serious of moving on. we've lost many pets in the past due to old age. 

our little tribute to our dear Harriet.

dudeedoo...

i'm recently hooked to this k-drama called my princess that i spent hours watching the episodes online. i often watch them from bayan24.tv, this pinoy website that host local tv shows like the daily news, noon time variety shows, k-soaps etc.


Song Seung Hun

he's the reason why i've been yearning to watch my princess each and every day lol. he's a pretty good actor though.  let's not forget about that.