Mr Tambourine Boy

There really are times where you just want to shut yourself from the rest of the world. That moment when you are angry but you don’t know why or what cause it? It just happens. I have an idea. Why don’t we follow what the boy in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close do? He brings a tambourine wherever he goes because its sound makes him calm.

Let’s buy tambourine and bring it (in backpack or bag) and use during stressful moments. What do you think? Regardless if we will be labeled as somebody with Asperger’s syndrome.

Black Wednesday

Today, November 2, 2011, a humpday is personally declared Black Wednesday. After going back for work from a long break, I was thrown with a bad news. My books were soak with dripping aircon water! And mind you, not one, or two, or three even. Ten books for crying out loud!

These are not your so-so books, but most of them are my all-time favorites including To Kill A Mockingbird, Gone Baby Gone, Never Let Me Go, Water For Elephants. Because there is no warm area near my office (the whole room is airconditioned), I immediately look for a place where it can get dry the soonest. The weather outside is not even cooperating. The sun is not out!

I put the soaked books in an un-occupied place where the air con is shut off, so its warm there. Besides, it is near the glass window so the heat outside seeps into the area. A dear friend suggests putting the books in a microwave. I’m in the office and we don’t have it here, so the idea is scrap. A nearby “pugon” is also ideal, but its dyahe. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the pages won’t stick, and that they only get crumpled.

Once they dry up, I might send them all to the province (home) so my mother can put them on display in her glass cabinet. Just display cause they are un-readable already. I’m also thinking of downloading their e-book edition to my Kindle so at least I have them on soft file.

The titles that were not affected.

This is ironic because just this morning, I read from the news that DepEd has declared November as the National Reading Month. Perfect, just perfect. Lesson learned. But I still can’t get over the fact that some of them are hardbound!

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By the way, even if I know that the books got wet, I did not get cranky or agitated from the whole situation. It did not even piss me off, to think that I have the right to (because these are expensive books, and some are even hard bound). This might be the subtle effect of daily breathing exercises that we do at work. It is called SKY (Sudarshan Kriya Yoga).

It’s hard to win a game with an imaginary opponent.

Last Sunday was my first time to watch a UAAP game, live, in Araneta Coliseum. I studied at the premier state university, but in their Iloilo campus, so watching and rooting for your school’s basketball team is not possible. I only got the chance to watch it on TV then; but it’s depressing because UP almost always lose to its opponents. In short, basketball is not our strongest suit (Oblation run is, just kidding).

But last Friday, July 15, UP won versus UE. It ended its 18^th consecutive losing streak. The last time they won was 2009! So, with some office mates from UP also, we decided to watch their next game last July 17 versus National University (NU). The scheduled game is 1pm so we meet up around 11.30am within the Gateway Mall area. We ate lunch at Café Adriatico. Crispy pata, because we need all the energy to shout and all. But apparently, two of my companions are too thin to eat crispy pork suckling! Both complained from dizziness. Hahaha!

When we enter the arena, the game is already starting, for a few minutes. The score? 10-1, in favor of NU. Uh-oh, too early to be branded a jinx, right? So we root for every shooting scores that UP gathered. Effective, because we lead the score 43-40 at the end of the first half, courtesy of a three-pointer buzzer beater. The second half, unfortunately, is another matter. NU rains on our parade, as they shoot three-pointers left and right. Not to mention, errors from UP team that lead to miss opportunity to score. To cut the long story short, UP lost.

This being my first time to watch it live, my office mates told me that I might be the jinx. Well, well, well. Jinx me not. Blame the basketball team for they’re a bunch of lemons. They are a lot of room for improvement there. [By the way, is the team underfunded?]

Promise that this will not be the last. We will see if I am really the jinx if UP loses again on future Sunday games that I am in the live audience.

Where art thou, SSS ID?

I happly for an SSS ID since last year. It will be a year in a few months. The last time I check, it is being processed. Damn, months? Others before mine had it in 60days!

Until this news came that SSS is going to release a “unified” ID that can be used for PhilHealth, GSIS and Pag-Ibig. Am I included to this new ID since I didn’t receive mine?

Crossing fingers.

 

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Summer Fruits.

I know the heat is unbearable, even if we live in a tropical country, where summer is synonymous with sweat. But nothing compares to recent summer, due to global warming, when after you take a bath you already start sweating again. And you would like to take a bath again. You experience this one way or the other.

But one good thing about summer is the different kinds of fruits.There’s siniguelas, melon, pakwan, singkamas, mangga, santol, indian mango.

I swear, I just love eating them. Reminds me of summers of the past, during my childhood in the province.

Why?

Rockwell’s Power Plant Mall has a good one.

So is SM Megamall.

So is Podium.

So is Robinson’s Galleria.

So is Robinson’s Pioneer.

Then why the hell is Shangrila Plaza not following suit to give mallrats a free, fast, wi-fi?

Why? They have airbonrne access but it’s not free.

Come on, Shangri-la. Don’t get left behind.

Tambayan ko pa naman ang mall na ‘to.

Weekend: Salivate for Lato, Exhorbitant Movie Tickets and Pacquiao Fight

I consider Friday night as the start of my weekend, even if I have work on Saturdays. Just because I am not one of the typical employees who only work 5days a week doesn’t mean I cannot trick my schedule and gloat only on a 1day break.

Last Thursday, the eve of my weekend, I watch Francis Lawrence’s “Water For Elephants.” I read the novel a few years ago, and I like it. Love story, set during the Depression era, with circus as the backdrop/setting. Who cannot resist that? But notice the irony there—circus (which is fun/entertaining) during one of the worst economic period. The contradicting parallelism is highlighted against the backdrop of the love triangle. But I have to say though that Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon has little on-screen chemistry to make the love story believable.

The following day, Friday, while checking some food blogs, I got the chance to visit 80breakfasts.blogspot.com, one of the few nice food blogs in the Philippines. And one food caught my eyes—ensalatang lato! Damn, it’s been ages since I ate one. I just have to salivate right there and then. To cut the long story short, I went to bet with lato on my mind.

Sinful, but will leave you happy afterwards.

The following day, Saturday, lato still pre-occupied my thoughts and palate. There’s a 24hours bulalohan near my work place and I was thinking maybe they have lato? They serve seafoods, so I suppose they have this sea weed? I keep my fingers crossed.

Come lunch time, I went to RJ’s for lunch. While checking the menu, there you have it under their “new menu/appetizers” is bagnet served with lato! Holy cow!

Ha! Not the one I’m looking for exactly (I want the lato ensalata) but any dish with lato is good enough for me! I ordered one, and finish my meal happy.

After I leave the office in the afternoon, I decided to go malling. I went to Shangrila Plaza to catch a movie. I watch Fast & Furious 5. One complaint though, the movie ticket now cost P230 for a new Hollywood release! Aray naman yan. [I notice that The Rock in the movie is always sweating, or perspiring. Yes, the whole screen time. Is he suffering from excessive sweating or something?]

After the movie, hunger sets in so I grab some Panini and watermelon shake to satisfy the most demanding body organ—my stomach. It was a lovely light dinner.

The cool drink to end my Saturday night!

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May 8, Sunday, was Mother’s Day. I texted my mother and greet her. She replied that the house (in the province) is ready for the Manny Pacquiao fight that day, and my father’s first companion watching it is my cousin who is like age 13! My father likes to watch the boxing fight in our terrace so some of our neighbours can watch. He subscribes to the pay per view TV feed everytime there is a Pacquiao fight. Which means it will be noisy, like when he is in a cockfight arena.

Croissant egg sandwich for lunch.

Me, I did not watch it. I went to EDSA Shrine to hear mass. But I am updated of what’s happening because Robinson’s Galleria has a free wi-fi. Lunch is at Delifrance in Podium. Light spaghetti and croissant egg sandwich. After which, I bought some Blu-Ray dee-bee-dee in St. Francis Square! Four titles: Somewhere (Sofia Coppola), Animal Kingdom (David Michod), Country Strong (Sharon Feste), and The Way Back (Peter Weir). After I bought these titles, I went home because the weather has been acting weird. It was tropical depression Bebeng. So it rained the whole afternoon which is good because I have the perfect excuse to be at home and watch movie, read a book, eat, watch movie again, read book again, and eat again.

C’est la vie.

What I would love to do now!

Beach, pizza, ice-cold Coke Zero.

Summer Bald.

It has been ages since I was kalbo. After I post a status update in Facebook that I want to go bald this summer, I finally said goodbye to my hair and it becomes this!

I think I may need to get used to this for two months. It’s summer, and enjoy it!