Quasi Deep Thoughts, She Thinks.

whats the weather like in your part of the world? its been raining here for 3 days straight now. and not just plain old rain-in-spain-staying-mainly-on-the-plain type of rain. torrential pouring, and howling winds. so i’ve been pretty much stuck at home these days. which brings to mind the question of your favorite thing to do when it rains? apart from reading a book, i love doing my nails. gave myself a manicure this afternoon, and painted them a bright berry red. and because i dont really grow my nails, and i have small fingers–my hands look like that of a 10 year old trying hard to look grown up. what-ev.

as much as i love the sound of hard rain, i miss the sunshiney weather. (20% of the reason i came for a vacay here for). so i’ll continue on chronicling our holiday–the next part of which was all under the sun.

the day after

the wedding, we headed off to pangkor island. pangkor is in the state of perak, and is about 90 km from ipoh. we drove straight from penang to the pier, and took the ferry on from there to the island.

the ride was about 30 minutes long. the ferries seemed safe and big enough. you can choose to stay in an air conditioned area or out at the deck.

upon docking and setting foot on the island, the first thing i saw were pink taxi vans. tons of them. these will take you to the resort of your choice.

the resort we stayed at was the sea view resort. a very generic name for a resort but im glad we went there because you really do get the beach front. it was also a seafood restaurant cum hotel, and the food was just glorious–better (and i am not exagerrating) than ANY food at all which ive tried in malaysia.

anyway, the best way to describe pangkor is–it is very UN-boracay. the beach was amazing, soft golden sand, calm waters all to yourself. but i have to admit, on our first day there, i felt quite frustrated because after dinner, there was NOTHING to do anymore. no cafe’s, no bars, no live music, no nightlife. at ALL. for someone who’s used to commercialized resorts, this was really nerve wracking. we all slept real early–9pm!

but after sleeping over my frustration, and having been fed the glorious food, and after frolicking in the shores with the 2 dobermans that were owned by the resort–i realized that this un-boracayness was exactly pulau pangkor’s charm. it grew on my by the second day, and once i got my groove going, there was no stopping.

mik–here’s that jumping photo for you. ( abit gay though) lol. as you all know, my vacations are never complete without those happy happy jump jump moments.

so what else did we do if there was no music, cafe, bar, and a total number of 3 souveneir shops nearby?

we hired a ratty motorcycle for 2 days. only when we’ve paid, and went off (shortly after that photo was taken), when the shop assistant told us, that “by the way”, there’s no fuel in the bike. it was only enough for us to make it to the nearest (and only) petrol station. but this is the best way to go around the island. i’m not such a fan of riding motorcycles ( which i find ironic since our family business deals with this), but i thoroughly enjoyed our circuit. we circled the island in just 30 minutes. the view was just breath taking. lush thick jungles, and seeing the local life–it was definitely different from your usual mainland malaysia.

the whole 3 days we spent there was very very relaxing and detoxifying.

there’s a thousand more photos , but here’s a clip i made of the whole pangkor stay:

**

update: as im finishing this post, i felt an earthquaaake!

akismet had been trigger happy with screening possible spam comments that it caught leah’s message to me that i had been tagged. sorry leah, better late than never! i love being tagged (hint hint!) and what a good break from my holiday narrative (which i havent even reached half of).

here goes:

What was I doing 10 years ago?
hmm. 1998. 17 years old. senior high. scrounging around for a good uni to go to. lining up for entrance exams (acet, upcat, what have you), preparing for senior ball.

What are the 5 things on my to-do list today?

hey, i’m on vacay i shouldnt have a to-do list! haha. well, they’re really just trivial things that don’t require a list:

- bug zk to look for my SLR cable and remind him to bring my party dress back to oz (he flies back tomorrow)

- practice doing makeup on my sister, (who’s yet again going to join some beauty contest. why she wants to go through this humiliation, i honestly don’t know)

Snacks I enjoy

oh gosh. are you seriously asking me this question?? chips and dip (i love making dips! dips that go straight to the hips oh yeah), red ribbon cakes (my favorite is coffee crunch!), oreo and cold milk, pinasugbo (iloilo snack–candied bananas), cheetos crunchy, buko pandan desert, salads of all kinds, pepperoni and cheese pizza, milkshakes, ice cream, jollibee spaghetti coupled with chicken joy, potato corner fries, mc donalds chicken nuggets, and SO MUCH MORE. needless to say, if you dissect my guts right here right now, its going to be one junkyard. i try..TRY not to take so much junk though. especially when i had my blood test in malaysia and the doctor seriously told me to cut down on sugar and carbs (my parents and grandparents are diabetics), and told me to really lose weight. im not overweight, im average, but for my condition (possible diabetic), its best that i should be on underweight level. so help me God!

Places where I lived

Hmm.

Olongapo - my family business is there, and i was also raised there

Manila - was born in manila, semi-raised there, and spent my studying years there

China - study after uni

Cambodia - work / leisure

Malaysia - work / leisure

South Korea - work

Things I’d do if I were a billionaire

my answers would be pretty generic, but im hoping some philanthropist reads this and goes, “oh. her answers are noble! she deserves a billion! here, let me draft a cheque.”

–pay off house mortgage

–buy a REAL house (not a flat)

–get TONS and TONS of dogs

–get Zk to quit his job

–TRAVEL EACH AND EVERY COUNTRY

–get all the MAC products and brushes. in every color, shade, size. and in doubles!

–give a hefty donation, or even set up my own literacy foundation

–get my mom to quit working

again, the list goes ON!

–

i loved answering this tag, im a fan of ‘what-if’s’. if you want to do this, please by all means, tag yourself. and dont forget to let me know so we could compare ‘notes’.

cheers!

..was what we really came for in malaysia. the groom is zk’s first cousin. he is from cyprus/london (greek-malaysian) and the bride is from beijing, china. i was uber-glad to know that the wedding will be in penang. penang is fast becoming my favorite place in malaysia. its very laid-back, very green and shady, and very historic. it has an equal mixture of humongous shopping malls, happening places, and also culture and history. almost every alley, shop or street in penang has a very rich history that goes way back during the east-indies. even the people are more laid back. (its just a shame to know that they are called “penangites!”)

anyway, the church wedding was held at a church of england chapel, and the tea ceremony and dinner reception was at the e&o hotel (eastern and oriental) penang. overlooking the sea, the hotel has an old 1920’s hollywood feel to it. very old fashioned, and very white (from the outside).

like all weddings, it was a good way to have a family get together, and also meet new people.

outside the church. with zk’s cousins and his sister (in ocean green sari).

zk was especially proud of his tie.

at the hotel. after the tea ceremony. waiting for dinner.

with zk’s family

and zk’s cousins

at the reception (change of costume for the bride)

the groom performed for his bride. (precious moments background was abit out of place)

loads of dancing as the night stretched

my husband took this incriminating photo of me with the father of the bride, who’s had too much to drink.

and we waited until the last minute for the party to end, up till when the bride and groom “retire”.

their honeymoon suite had a dining area big enough to house a barangay

the living room area was bigger, much much bigger than our entire house in canberra

and the toilet bowls (there was a his and hers) were golden.

we even begged to let us sleep in the jacuzzi.

—

it was a lovely wedding that lasted pretty much the entiiire day. we were knackered by the end of it, but it was truly fun.

so i wasn’t kidding when i said my feet bloated real much. i have gnarly toes and my feet are normally veiny. so when zk noticed it was unusually smooth, i knew something was wrong. i had to get a new pair of flip-flops because the pair i was wearing became unbearable later on. thankfully it lasted only for about a day.

so the first stop after we landed in KL was Ipoh. my in laws picked us up and we took the almost 4 hour drive to their hometown of Ipoh. Prior to my meeting Zk, ive never heard of this city. my knowledge of malaysian cities were limited to penang, kuala lumpur, sabah, and kota kinabalu. ipoh is a valley, and is pretty much known for its caves and mining industry. that’s where we always stay when we go to malaysia because zk’s relatives are there, and that’s where he grew up until the age of 8. if i could compare it to any town in the philippines, it might be laguna. more so because its pretty much flat , not much tall buildings. but at the same time it also has lots of mountains. it reminds me of laguna because of the way the houses are. bungalow and all are mostly duplexes. there are a few shopping malls, but not mega sized as those you would find in KL and Penang.

its a very laid back town where almost everyone know each other. people in shops call zk “ah-boy” because they’ve seen him grow up. zk would always have a story to tell about every drain, ditch, or street sign.

but what i love most about ipoh is its food. like anywhere in malaysia, hawker food stalls that sell malay, indian, and chinese food are almost everywhere and are open till the wee hours of the morning. so when you are hankering for a hunger fix in the middle of the night, you’re sure to find a place to eat just a few blocks from the house.

one such hawker place is this woolley food court near zk’s parents house. this place has undergone a major makeover. the last time we were there, the signs, pictures and lights werent there. it was just a regular covered food area. now it even offers wifi. but when you’re in there, believe me , the last thing you’d think of is bringing out your laptop. because all youd want to do is just eat.

here are some of the food we’ve been having. they’re all pretty much deep fried and unhealthy. but they’re damn good.

my personal favorite is this noodle dish called char koey teow. it’s flat white noodles with shrimp, chicken, some veggies, and bean sprouts. it’s fried over a blazing hot wok and coated with egg. it’s served with a dollop of chili sauce but i love it plain. penang makes the most famous char koey teows because they are cooked in lard (FAT!) and they have bits of sausages in them. im not a fan of sausages nor fat so i like the plainer version.

this one is called something like lai liu ha. it’s a different species of prawn (but all in the shrimp family anyhow) and is deep fried in batter. it has a really different taste to shrimp , its much sweeter, and the meat is very tender. it’s one of zk’s favorites and it quickly became mine as well.

this one, zk has not been having sleep over for days because he craves for it most of the time. i don’t mind it at all, but when you’ve had a lot of it, you can feel quite woozy. this is called oh chien (it sounds like that anyway). and its like oyster omellette. pretty much self explanatory. there are 2 variations of this dish. the above one is pretty much a basic omellette type, fried in one whole. zk likes the other type:

which is a more..um..wet? version. you can see and taste the oysters more in this version, and it is served broken into bits.

another favorite is roti canai. this is a common indian meal. you dip the roti (bread) in curry, dahl, or chutney. i love the chutney dip but it wasn’t available in ipoh. i think they are only in klang.

here’s another thing i love about malaysia (and singapore)

HORLICKS malties!!! i love the original flavor. i swear i almost cried when i saw these little packets being sold at watsons. i dont understand why they aren’t available in the philippines. i hate ovalteenies and they make a lousy substitute. i remember when horlicks tablets were sold in a glass jar long ago here in the phils. they were only available in chocolate flavor and though i like the plain white malt flavor, they are alright.

–

now there’s something really magical about malaysia –as much as we’ve been eating day in day out for every 3 hours (almost)–we managed to lose a few kilos without exercise. water weight? hot weather? i dont know. but i swear, a place where you can eat all you want and still lose weight..and most of all..without exercise?? ha ! it does exist!

..is getting what you pay for. we are cheapskates and have managed to get a roundtrip ticket ( 2 airlines combined –virgin blue and air asia) from canberra to the goldcoast (via sydney) , to kuala lumpur , then manila and back the same route–all for just a little over 700 dollars (both US and OZ $)

i wouldn’t recommend this for couples with kids, and of course if you are a connoissuer of travel, this would be a nightmare. but even zk and i–who pride ourselves as roughneck travel people, are not entirely proud of the misery that is air asia. if you are travelling from a little city town called canberra, you always have to get to a main international airport –(sydney, brisbane, melbourne, perth). we had to stop in sydney before flying to the goldcoast. for this, we flew virgin blue which wasn’t any problem anyway because both flights were just about 50 minutes each.

arrivng at the goldcoast international airport 5 hours before our goldcoast-kuala lumpur departure (which was like almost half the size of canberra “internationl-my-ass” airport), we were surprised to see people already lining up at the air asia check-in counters. we later found out that this was because air asia closes its check in counters one hour before departure (wtf??).

zk and i had different booking numbers and for this, we were able to ask the agent to seat us together. (otherwise requesting to be seated together under different booking nos would require some minimal fee from the airline). and i was happy that you actually get seat numbers–as opposed to free seating (it helps if you are fit, and run very very fast) on their inter-asia flights.

we boarded the airbus 330 aircraft which air asia crammed with as much seats as possible. no onboard entertainment whatsoever–you can’t even pay for it because there were absolutely no tv monitors anywhere. we brought our personal inflatable pillows because you also have to pay for their so called comfort kits, which consists of an eye mask, a pillow, and a blanket. the flight attendants all had oily and badly put makeup (would love to have a makeover project for them all), and also seemed to be dishevelled and distraught even before take-off.

i thought that departing from goldcoast to KL would mean a shorter flight time since they are geogpahically close. but we got the scare of our lives when we found out we would be travelling 8 hours and 50 minutes! it doesnt make any sense at all. manila-sydney is 7 hours. even hongkong-sydney is just over 7 hours. 9 hours in the cramped plane with a couple of screaming babies 2 seats ahead of us, is just horrendous. even with zk brining his portable movie player–it was just uncomfortable. the seats recline very very minimally. and though i never had deep vein thrombosis, i think i was starting to get the preludes to it.

and oh. the meals. we prebooked our meals when we bought our tickets online. and i was pleased to find out that we would be getting nasi lemak for our dinner.

nasi lemak is a traditional malay meal that is wrapped in banana leaf. it consists of coconut milk rice (i assume the rice is cooked with coconut milk) and has chicken strips, egg, peanuts, anchovies, cucumber (and other veggies) and a dash of chili sauce. now the beauty of this meal is that all the above components are not just mashed up together. they are traditionally neatly separated (and thats how i like my meals) so its not a mish-mash blob. i find nasi lemak really yummy and a very satisfying meal. i wasn’t able to take a photo of air asia’s inflight meal menu, but the photo of the nasi lemak which they claim to have actually looks yummier than the photo i swiped above.

now i’m no demanding fool and i know that plane food never really looks exactly the same as resto meals or as what you would imagine it in your head to be. but this was the meal that was dumped on my tray table:

and it tasted way more depressing than it looks. i pity those who have had to have their first taste of nasi lemak with this patheitc pirated version of it. because they will never ever order it again, even from a real nasi lemak stall.

so like i said, the moment we got to kl, my feet pretty much became swollen. i was told this is common for extreme temperature changes ( cold to hot). but i have a strong feeling it was party also from the extremely cramped seating arrangements.

anyway, we got there alive so i guess i should just shut up. but this post is a preview to long haul air asia flights. if their goldcoast-kl takes 9 hours, i dont even want to think how long their kl- london flight will be (which they will start soon, i hear)

ok enough air asia bashing. there must be a good thing about the flight, right?

so yeah i found “me” on their in flight magazine.  (cue song: “always look at the bright….siiide of life…”)

after all these, unfortunately for us poor bastards, we cannot say “NEVER AGAIN” to air asia X. it’s cheap as chips. it gets me there in one piece. albeit cranky. so here’s to ratty low-cost airlines…CHEEEEEERS!!

Hu-Well! i havent updated in about 3 weeks and whaddayaknow–here i am in ipoh, malaysia already.

so we left canberra last sunday. stopped in sydney and goldcoast before landing in Kuala Lumpur at 4 in the morning. then took the long drive to ipoh.

so what happens when you pull yourself out from a zero-degree city to a close to 30 degree city??

bloated, elephant feet and hands.

not to mention a sore throat and a rebellious runny nose.

dang it. hope this is just for the first day.

so here’s a rundown of what happened the past weeks:

–old habits, they die hard. and painfully. i have this annoying habit of biting off those equally annoying “hangnails”. so i did this with my left forefinger. pained abit. the next day, it swelled. the next day, it swelled even more. the next day, an angry eye was born , it was yellow. and it got too painful that i couldn’t even pick my nose. god that’s frustrating. so off to the doctor we went. i thought it was my first case of ingrown nail. one look at it and the doctor took a very sharp needle, and poked it right in the EYE. ooze ooze ooze. yellow mellow yellow. not. very. pleasant.

–we went overkill with the rockclimbing. did it twice more before we left. i love it! got my legs all bruised and cut. but there’s nothing more exhilirating. have also gone back to running (zk is doing bleep test training and since the last time i did that, i almost collapsed like an exhausted elephant, im just running at my own pace now.) and why are we killing ourselves?–well we both gained some evil, nasty, horrendous winter weight. you know how some people they say winter makes them thinner bec the body works harder to maintain warmth (hence burning calories along the way)…total LIE. for us anyway. upon reaching the sunny humid lands of malaysia, i swear i could feel the fat MELT. let’s all hope i continuously melt.

–have totally gone obsessed with makeup lately.

zk: uh, are we going somewhere?

me: i am.

zk: where?

me: im checking the mail!

have been researching mac products so i know what to get when i arrive in manila. (canberra doesnt even have mac!) i WONT be swayed by salespeople. ha thats my weakness. so i now have written a list of what im going to get. and that’s ONLY it. why does makeup have to be so damned expensive?? its not like theyre permanent! especially those brushes! what body organ do i need to sell to collect all their brushes?!

–before we left oz, i almost got into a cat fight with some chinese girl. yes, you read it right. me–at the age of 27, almost got into a hair pulling fest with a chinese uni student. well there i was, one fine tuesday afternoon, browsing through clothes at a shop in the mall. i was listening to my mp3 player so i was oblivious to everything. then i notice this chinese couple (im not being a racist. i know enough mandarin to know where they’re from). they were about 18? 21 max. the girl was obviously throwing a hissy fit. noticed them because they were both looking at me. then the guy said something to the girl which made the girl’s expression turn into a sourer shade of uric acid. i moved on, ignored this random scene. moved to a different section of clothes. before i know it, the girl stomps her way to me, and says something. (which i couldnt hear of course because of my music). i saw the boyfriend’s horrified reaction as he tried to pull her back. “sorry, what did you say?”, i took off my headphones. i swear, the girl was white and her lips shaking with anger. “youre a BEACH.”

in my mind, i had these options to say:

a.) say after me, b-i-t-c-h. short i. bitch. not beeech.

b.) sorry are you speaking in english?

c.) just laugh uncontrollably. and tell her to get back to me when she’s passed basic english.

i was remarkably calm. i dont even know where i got the patience to just say, “oh yeah? well you’re an ocean.”

(zk was laughing so hard when i told him this. but on hindsight, it was a stupid comeback because she wouldn’t have gotten it anyway!) so back to the scene,  i think my not being worked up has angered her even more and the boyfriend said sorry. only then was i able to put the pieces together. and before her disbelieving eyes, i winked at the boyfriend and gave him a knowing smile. and ran the hell out as fast as i could. (she was holding a starbucks frap, god knows where she would have flung that had i stayed)

im quite pleased with the silent and sneaky way i handled it. had i shouted back at her, i may have just embarassed myself. and could be seen as an adult attacking a minor. but i also couldnt just leave without giving the little beach a dose of her own beachiness.

–

ok im off to bed droogies. tomorrows an early start.  we’ll be heading to penang on thursday, the wedding is on saturday and were booked to spend 2 nights at pangkor island resort. then off to my island home on wednesday!

hope everybody’s doing well. sorry for the lack of blog hop lately. i’ll be bugging you all soon enough!

we were pretty excited to go to this computer fair (such geeks we are) last saturday. but after finding out that the fair won’t be till a week later, we were stumped. ok, so what do we do now? zk wanted to go house-looking. he loves looking at open houses. what for? “to know the market out there..” is his reply. i don’t want to go looking at nice houses when we don’t really have any plans to buy anytime soon. we’ve done it a couple of times before, woke up early and just drove around with a newspaper in hand, the open house pages ready. i dont know but to me, if you don’t have any plans to get one soon, don’t look. because i’ll get so excited to get it if i see one that i want. and i feel it’s a waste of time when you really won’t get it anyway. am i the only one with this syndrome?

but zk is really interested in real estate, and would like to study it when he has the time. it may be just me but that’s really not my cup of tea. so, back to the situation above, before he could suggest that we get a newspaper to see the open houses, i quickly exclaimed:

rockclimbing! and im so so glad we did. it’s something we’ve been wanting to do together since i came here to canberra, but we just never had the time. we used to do this every single day when we were in malaysia until our hands were all blistered. and it’s been like 3 years since i haven’t climbed so i was abit scared that my climbing mojo’s were gone.

but im glad it’s still there.

and i’ve still got a bit of that clinging power. yay!

i wish we’d started this earlier, because now we’ve only got 2 weeks left before we leave for our holiday! i really love the thrill of going higher and higher.  (i always imagine there’s a snapping crocodile running after me)–yes incorporate real life drama why not.

it was a goood good saturday. we loved it so much and vowed to climb regularly that we got our own harnesses, chalk and carabiners. we might take it with us when we leave, i know its a silly idea because who’s got the time to climb when you’re on a holiday? and apart from zk, i don’t know anyone else who’d go climbing with me.

now wasn’t that absolutely much better than open-house looking?

wanda tagged me with this. there are 12 quesrions, i used flickr search for answers and here we go:

1. What is your first name? not belly. not button. no, not levi’s either. GO FIGURE!
2. What is your favorite food? right now? grilled cheese!
3. What high school did you go to? ica. (that pic was the closest i could get)
4. What is your favorite color? green all the way, from my heart and mind
5. Who is your celebrity crush? right now, crushing on jean reno
6. What is your favorite drink? iced lemon tea
7. What is your dream vacation? irkutsk! (trans-siberian rail actually)
8. What is your favorite dessert? panna cotta. want to learn how to make it!
9. What do you want to be when you grow up? a lover.
10. What do you love most in life? having fun. jumping into diff dimensions.
11. What is one word that describes you? ha. the photo description says , “this is how a sometimes-grumpy and irritable cute kitty smiles on his own free will.”
12. What is your flickr name? surfergirl

loved the tag, wanda. thanks!

i was tagged by litzie by what i think should be called the husband tag. im supposed to tag other people, but im not sure if they want to reveal that much info about their better halves. so please, if you want to do this , just consider yourselves tagged and do let me know. this is NOT restricted to just husbands. partners, boyfriends, lovers, girlfriends. everybody’s welcome!

—-

Are you deeply in love with your spouse or boyfriend/Girlfriend? If you do, let’s try how well you remember the moment of your life with him. But before you put yourself in the hot seat please read the rules of this tag first.

RULES:
1. This tag should be pass on to your closest friends.
2. Visit the blog of the person you’ve got this tag.
3. Leave a comment on her/his tag post. Be sure to thank her/him for this tag.
4. Highlight and link all the list of people who accepted this tag by visiting their blog site.
5. There are 10 questions that you need to answer but you will be the one to write the 10th question for the next person you want to pass this tag.

Here’s your questions: Be Honest and True!

1. How did you meet your husband/wife or boyfriend/girlfriend?

to make a long and complicated story short. i mistakenly sent an email to not just the wrong person, but a complete stranger. this wrong person and complete stranger is now my husband.

2. Where did you go on your first date?

fort santiago! and though it wasn’t really a date because my sister was with us, we had so much fun.

3. When was your first intimate kiss?

december of 2002.

4. How many girlfriends/boyfriends he/she had in the past? Do you honestly know?

he never had any. it sounds weird but when you get to know him it won’t be hard to imagine. so i was his first and last. heh!

5. What is his/her ethnicity?

malaysian-chinese. and on our wedding day, when his uncle gave a presentation of their family origins, i found out they also came from burma.

6. What is his/her favorite food?

bak-kut-teh (a malaysian herby soup that’s prolly the equivalent to our ‘buto-buto’ soup)

taw-yu-bak (malaysian version of adobo)

palabok

sisig

7. What is he/she like if he/she is mad?

very annoying.

8. What are the things he/she did you thought is the most romantic thing he’d/she’d ever done?

romantic is not really a word you would associate to both him and me. but i am always ’swayed’ by the little thoughtful things he does for me. like when we once went skiing up the mountains in jindabyne. we stayed in this place that only had ONE SMALL TANK of hot water. i fell asleep and resigned myself to not showering (no one dies from not showering 1 or 2 nights hey!). when i woke up, i saw him shivering and wet. he bravely took a shower with less than lukewarm water, and in trickles at that, so that i can have my shower comfortably.

9. Describe how he/you proposed to you.

the proposal that happened was more like a business proposal. he presented me with a plan as if i were some ceo. complete with a diagram. it sort of went like him, referring to a point in the chart saying , “this. this is where we are now. now in 2 years time, um, i was sort of wishing. hoping. that we could start our lives together. i mean, that is if you concur. “

10. Do you give gift during anniversary?

yep we do. we have 3 anniversaries, and because we’re cheap. we officially give gifts on our first wedding, 10th of June. we’re not grand givers. we get one for ourselves (stuff for house), and 2 for each other. on the other 2 anniversaries, we eat.

THEY PLAYED ALONG:
1. Soujourn
2. Pinay Mom in Czech Republic
3. See Me for What You Will
4. Lainy’s Musings
5. Our Journey To Forever
6. Sheng’s Simple Thoughts…
7. Pinay WAHM
8. Me and My World
9. coicoi’s World
10. BLOGSILOG
11. A Mother’s Horizon
12. Because Life Is Fun
12. My BIG Picture
13. YOUR LINK HERE…

we went overboard with the movie hogging this weekend, you’d think there was a decree that friday, saturday and sunday were the last 3 days we have in our lives to watch any film.

friday night we went out to see ‘the happening’. we’ve always been fans of m. night shyamalan’s creations. and it’s been a long time that i haven’t seen a movie that i totally do not know what its about. all the rest are sequels, tv shows, –while they are fun to watch, i was in for a change. thrill me! excite me!
and so the movie just did. if you’re in for suspense and a plot that’s out of this world unimaginable, GO! Watch! Now.
entertainment factor was high mainly because of the genre, and because of the shyamalan factor basically.
but.
i left the movie house feeling totally incomplete. a whole load of questions that i think should have been answered in the movie. and the main actors totally pulled the movie down.
main question, if the ****s (im not spoiling it) were releasing ****0-t**ins that disables the human’s self preservation mode–why do the ‘taken’ people immediately (and creatively!) take the exit out?
the more logical thing to happen would them to be just passively living–i.e, when a charging bull comes head on to you, you welcome him in your arms. or something like that.
probable guess, they must have overlooked that fact, or chose to ignore it and jump to the extreme, for that sensational factor.
that’s the main thing about the movie. and then there are the ill-chosen actors.
just when i’ve regained my esteem for mark wahlberg in “shooter”, he just…flopped back down in the happening. most evident in the part where they got off the train and he goes , “but mister…! you can’t just leave us all here?” (speaking slowly with those famous forehead wrinkles crunching together to show emotion.)
mind you, wahlberg’s performance are already notches higher compared to zooey deschanel, who plays his wife. they already added a bit of spice to the scenario by portraying her as a wife who cannot commit, but it really doesn’t give any oomph to her lifeless performance. she has a very pretty face with wide blue eyes that could have been used to portray emotions, but unfortunately, in the movie-she only had 2 modes: blue eyes blank and blue eyes wide. her lines were also limited to, “but elliot…!” , “no, jess…”, and “..what are we gonna do??”
the more talented john leguizamo was cast in a supporting role. he probably would have carried wahlberg’s role with more dignity. but then again, when has john leguizamo ever been cast as the lead role? always the token side-kick.
this movie is a prime example of a ‘promising plot / poor casting’ case.

–

we missed this when it came out in the movies, so we watched it sometime thursday on dvd. based on a young adult series, i thought it was another ‘harry potter’ kind of story. (harry potter , just like bridget jones who jumpstarted the chick lit trend, is the trailblazer that sparked many rowling wannabe’s into writing all sorts of creative young adult series).
but it was a joy to watch. the movie, and the creation as a whole totally reminded me of jim henson’s the labyrinth which starred jennifer connely and david bowie. totally different, but gave me the same ‘vibe’. freddie highmore was also brilliant, playing twins with opposite personalities. when you listen to his lines closely though, he slips from time to time putting on an american accent. but he is forgiven, and it sounds sort of adorable at times anyway. just because he is young, and was amazing in charlie and the chocolate factory. anyway, movie was tastefully done and cg and animation were flawless.

–

we watched wind chill in the dead of the night so it was extra chilling. i wouldn’t have taken an interest in it , but when i found out that emily blunt stars in it, i knew i won’t be disappointed. 2 college students (their names are never revealed in the movie) take a long ride to delaware. but because of taking a ’short cut’ route , their car swerves off track and they are stranded in the middle of the night, dead in winter. they get haunted by the ghosts of the people who have been killed in the area. simple plot, not too scary (not as scary as the orphanage definitely!).
no killer twist or plot–just a basic ghosthaunting scary movie but it’s not too bad either.

–

saturday morning, i just had to pop this on the dvd player. come on, after all those ‘heavy’ movies i needed some no-brainer. and it’s not bad! i won’t say its one of my favorite movies but its light, funny, and will definitely bring a smile to your face. i loved the old style animation they used (circa snow white, cinderella, sleeping beauty) very vintage disney! i wish they created these kinds of animation still. while i appreciate the technology of pixar, i miss the classic cartoon type when they still drew their hands. and the characters weren’t too shiny or 3d.
so enchanted is about this princess bride-to-be who is unfortunate enough to have an evil queen witch (literally) for a mother-in-law. before the wedding takes place, the evil queen banishes her to a ‘land where there are no happy endings’. and where else could that be–but the Real world.
Amy Adams was marvelous–think of her role in ‘catch me if you can’–abit delirious as a princess lost in the real world. powerful cast as well–julie andrews as the narrator, susan sarandon as the evil queen, patrick dempsey as the human who fosters in gisele (princess). james marsden (cyclops from x-men) was degraded to a singing prince. timothey spall (the ever vermin-faced evil sidekick in almost all movies) was perfect choice for the evil queen’s right hand.

–
last movie. i was actually resigned to just waiting for the dvd for this. but zk really wanted to see it. so we watched it sunday evening. im so glad we did. i immensely enjoyed it! we saw the first movie 2 weeks ago on tv , so everything was still ‘fresh’. prince caspian has more action and major battle scenes. and the pevensie children have grown–both in appearance and character. susan and peter were more or less the same, but i loved edmund and lucy. edmund especially–has shown more maturity and bravery, and is getting more handsome if i may add. lucy — i loved her in the first movie, and though she’s not ‘cute’ as a little girl anymore, she’s still very charming. warwick davies (willow!) stars as well but you won’t recognize him. the actor who played prince caspian also wasn’t just a pretty face. impressive to know that he is not spanish/latino what with the accent ( i am prrince cas-pyan!) and dark looks.
well its a classic and the story just gets better.(some scenes were very reminiscent of lord of the rings). ive been inspired to read all 7 books of the chronicles of narnia. (shame i havent even read the lion the witch and the wardrobe!).
the next movie , the voyage of the dawn treader is set to come out in 2010. (bummer!)

so there, as i’ve spent my weekend with movies, i’m catching up on reading now.