K-Pop

I love this commercial of Lucky Me! Supreme. Nakakatuwa super! And everytime we get to see it on TV, Joema imitates the dance ahahaha kaya lalong nakakatawa! Galing ng nakaisip! You really won't forget the commercial and Jjampong! Based on the comments in Youtube, the boys are real Koreans. Some people even mistake them for the real Korean boy band DBSK.

Roller Coaster

The past few days has been a roller coaster ride for Joema and I. Over the weekend we were at Tagaytay with friends just relaxing and chilling out. And then come Monday night, the news that Joema's grandfather died sent a black cloud over us. Please say a little prayer for Joema's lolo if you can. He died at age 86. He will be missed dearly by his wife, daughters, sons-in-law and grandchildren.

Oh Santorini So Dreamy

I first saw Santorini on Samantha Brown's: Passport to Europe show. She went on a boat ride around the caldera and then she visited a local's house.

Photos from http://www.santorini-greece.biz/santorini-photos.htm

She was staying at this beautiful hotel, Hotel Katikies. This hotel was also featured in another Discovery: Travel and Living show where they featured the top 10 best hotels for your honeymoon. I don't remember what number Hotel Katikies was on the list but it was there.

Photo from http://www.santorini-hotels.info/katikies.htm

And then over the Valentine weekend another one of those top 10 shows in the same channel featured another Santorini hotel, Heliotopos. I think it was the top 10 wedding destinations.

Photo from the website of Heliotopos

I'm in love with this place. It's amazing. I want to go there. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll know my fascination on Europe and my wanting to go there. Now Santorini is number one on my list. If I only have enough money and I could only visit one place in Europe then Santorini will be the one. Just looking at the pictures makes me feel so at ease with the place. I love the all-white structures. I love it in contrast with the blue caldera. I can just imagine myself sitting outside the proch of my hotel room staring at that expanse of blue water and just drifting off to whereever. Sigh! I love it! I can't afford either Hotel Katekies or Heliotopos so I searched for a much affordable place to stay when I go there. (Yes, the power of positive thinking. I am so there in Santorini!) And then I found this.. Hotel Katerina's Castle.

Photos from the website of Hotel Katerina

It's perfect! I love it! Not as pricey as the other two hotels but it offers a great view and I love the white interiors.

Stranger than Fiction

I love this movie. I'm glad I caught it on HBO. You know how HBO shows you the next movie after the movie you're watching has just finished and then they show the main actors in the film. I'm not really familiar with this title and then I saw the Will Ferrell and Dustin Hoffman were starring in it so I just switched the channel. I figured it must be an old comedy film I haven't heard of and it's probably funny. But since I cannot find something I liked I started channel surfing and was back on HBO. The movie has just started showing Will Ferrell brushing his teeth with tiny scribbles on the screen and someone narrating while he's doing it. And that piqued my curiosity to watch it.

It's about Harold Crick played by Will Ferrell who is a bit obsessive-compulsive. He counts the number of times of his brush strokes, does the single knot when doing his tie because he saves a few second doing it, runs to the bus stop every morning to catch his bus, only spends 45 minutes eating his lunch and a little over 3 minutes for his coffee break (if I remember the numbers correctly form the movie). These he does every single day and does it with the help of his wrist watch. He works as an auditor for IRS and can multiply large numbers in his mind. While showing all these someone is narrating to us, the viewers, what is happening.

And then one day, Harold hears the voice and finds himself bothered by it because he's the only one who hears it and the narrator goes "Little did he (Harold) know that he's about to die".

While this is going on Emma Thomson who plays Karen Eiffel who is a writer is shown to have writer's block and she couldn't think of a way to kill off Harold. So there at first I thought "Oh so Harold is just fictional." But I was wrong.

Because of what he's been hearing, Harold goes to a psychologist who refers him to a literary professor Jules Hilbert, played by Dustin Hoffman. I don't know how but Prof. Hilbert figures out that Harold is part of a story when Harold tells him that the narrator said the part "little did he know…". They try to figure out what kind of story Harold is in and concluded that it's a tragedy based on the mishaps that happened between Harold and Ana, played by Maggie Gyllenhaal. So Prof. Hilbert tells him to just live his life, learn new things, meet new people. Harold decides to buy a guitar and pursued Ana. They fell in love and then Harold realized his story must be a comedy then because Ana fell in love with him. When he went to Prof. Hilbert, who was watching a tape of an interview of Karen Eiffel, Harold recognized the voice and bham! He searched for her and begged her not to kill him. But Karen has already drafted the part of his death and was about to finalize it. She let Harold read it first but she was clearly devastated after finding out that her characters are real people. In all her novels, all the main characters have died in the end. Harold was too chicken to read it so he let Prof. Hilbert read it. Prof. Hilbert read it and advised him to let Karen finish the novel – you will not die as poetic and as beautiful the way she has written it – as Prof. Hilbert puts it.

Oh Prof. Hilbert was right. His "death" was just the perfect way to go, atleast for him. The detail, everything, they all fit the story. Too bad she decided to change it which was the disappointment for me in the movie. But I guess that's what the movie is all about. It's really not about the book Karen was writing but about the real people involved in the book.

Our First Valentine

as husband and wife that is. We really didn't do that much because we stayed in.

Joema surprised me with flowers and chocolate.

I cooked pasta :) I used ground pork and the Tomato and Cheese Del Monte Spaghetti sauce, added fresh basil and more cheese for flavor.



We were supposed to drink the wine I brought home (a Christmas gift a few years ago) but we didn't have cork screw to open it up so we drank it the next day. Although we didn't even finish our glass. I didn't like the taste of it. I tried doing what I see in the movies and TV where you swirl and take a sniff of the wine before drinking. It did taste a bit sweeter but I guess wine doesn't do it for me. On Valentine's night we drank the remaining vodka that we had last time. That's more of my kind of drink.

How 'bout you..how did you spend last Valentine's Day?

Hollywood Week

Since Joema and I have been watching AI at the same time we're browsing through our wedding photos and acutally choosing the ones we want to be included in the wedding album, we're doing the same elimination process as the judges are doing. LOL Our first batch of photos were included in the "Hollywood Week" folder. :) We have yet to trim the photos down to our Final 88 or 118. Joema wanted the number 88 because he thinks it's lucky but I suggested why not 118 because of our wedding date. *teehee*

Thoughts on AI's Top 36

Have you seen last night's American Idol? Here are some of the things I thought about while watching the episode.

First off, why are there 36 contestants and not the usual 24? There seemed to be so many contestants now and not even all of them deserve to be there. Like that guy Von Smith ..I think he just shouts out and do not really have a good voice. And then after him they showed the sing-off between Cody Sheldon and Alex Wagner-Trugman. I think both guys deserve to be on the top 36 than Von. And then when Jamar was eliminated after they've shown Danny Gokey was in for the final 36, I thought it wasn't fair. If they had a spot for Von they could have just given it to Jamar Rogers instead. He had more personality and you can already see what kind of a recording artist he will be. I was shouting in front of the TV when they were showing this. Joema had to And what about those people who made it but forgot their lyrics during Hollywood wee? Like Stephen Fowler and Joanna Pacitti!!?!? I remembered Simon saying at the start of the week that when you forget your lyrics you're gone. But no they gave these people second chances although I read this morning that Joanna was removed from the final 36. What about Tatiana del Toro? She's kind of a loopy girl hahaha. I noticed when Cody and Alex came to the holding room, everyone was just shocked to know the results because it was the first sing-off and no one was really showing happy they are for Alex because Cody was still there, but Tatiana was clapping and saying "woohoo". I don't know if she's insensitive or just really doesn't get what's happening around her. She did it again when Jamar came back to the holding room telling everybody he didn't make it through. Everyone was shocked but again Tatiana was clapping. Oh my! And is she really talented? If she is then I'm not getting it. It's either she's really talented and my being annoyed with her is getting to me or she's not really talented and the judges just put her through to be the "life of the show" or something like that.

I don't really have favorites yet but we'll see.

Let's Picnik in Bangkok

Due to the overwhelming comments on my honeymoon photos (yes, those three of you who commented LOL!), I'm inspired to blog about my trip to Bangkok with the fam using Picnik (used the texts and stickers feature this time). I started to blog about it here but was never able to continue telling about it. Here are the sights of Bangkok:

Celebrating with Friends

Last weekend was sort of extension of my birthday celebration.

On Friday, I got to meet up with My, Joel and Gary. It was Joel's birthday too so we had a double celebration although it was his treat that night. Thanks for the dinner and coffee, Joel! As usual the night didn't pass without much "panlalait" from all of us haha. The last time I saw these guys (Joel and Gary) was before Grace went back to the States after our wedding while My I last saw on our wedding.

And then the night after, it was my turn to host a dinner at home for my girls minus Reyna who celebrated her birthday the night before, which I wasn't able to attend. Quits na kami haha. She wasn't feeling well that Saturday that's why she wasn't able to come. Tsk, tsk hang-over at puyat not a good combo. We ordered in Chinese food which Joema wanted to pass off as my cooking - Honey, next time let's take the food out of the styro containers first before we trick them into believing it was I who cooked. *wink wink* We watched A Very Special Love after dinner. We've all watched it already except for the boys so it was some kind of torture for them haha. After that Bedtime Stories was up next.



See you soon peeps!

Hopping On and Off KL

The next day of our honeymoon after we had breakfast, we asked the hotel front desk where the nearest stop is for the Hop-On Hop-off Bus. This bus goes around KL and stops at various tourist spots or places of interests. They pointed us to the Aquaria. We stepped out of the hotel and walked towards Aquaria. When we got there and asked where, the person we asked gave us directions - go up the esclator, turn left and then go straight. So we followed that but it lead us out of the building. We didn't bother asking someone for directions (which we should have, we learned later on) so we went on walking towards the Petronas Towers. When we got there, I was already getting tired so we kind of asked people for directions. We were pointed towards the main entrance and then from there we went to a bus stop right in front of KLCC. Good thing there was someone asking about the ticket or we wouldn't have found out that there were no booths to buy your tickets from, there was just someone there who you have to ask about the ticket. And then she will give you the ticket. There weren't even posters. She should have worn a big sign over her head "Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tickets Sold by Me". Anyways, if we'd ask the girl sitting on the steps just outside Aquaria, we could have bought our tickets from her and saved ourselves the walk. But that's part of the adventures of travelling. You make mistakes along the way. We bought our tickets (costs RM38) and waited for the bus. The bus has a guide who checks the ticket and orients you that it can be used for 24 hours and that you can get on and off the different stops. He even asked us our nationality, which I think because the bus is really for tourists. And there were actually headsets inside the bus you can use and you'll hear a guided tour of the route. Although most of the headsets on that first bus were busted.

The couple next to us, talked to us when they heard we were Filipinos. Apparently they've been in the Philippines so many times. They don't really like Manila because of the traffic and pollution but they've been everywhere else - Bohol, Palawan, Cebu, even Dumaguete and Siquijor to name a few. They were living in a hotel in Chinatown and when they got off they told us where the shops are there. The bus stop in Chinatown is not where Petaling is. Petaling is like their Divisoria, tiangge all over the place.

National Palace


Our first stop was at the National Palace. Not so much to see there because you can't enter. That's why the bus stops there for a good 5-10minutes so that you can take pictures. We took pictures of the palace guard and their horses and the palace gates. When we were about to go, a new set of palace guards were trodding down the gate. Too bad we missed the changing of the guards, it's supposed to be a visual treat watching the changing of the guards.

National Museum


I don't remember how much the entrance fee is but I think we paid RM4 each. Learned a few things about the history of Malaysia. Joema had fun looking at the old cars and artillery. There's this item in the museum that looks like a box made of metal and then the description was it's what the soldiers used as backpack to keep their things. It looks so heavy you wouldn't want to be the that soldier hehe

Old Railway Station


At the time we were at the National Mosque, it was time for their prayers so we went across the street to see the Old Railway Station. There's really not much to see there but the architecture of the building. That building behind us is now houses the KTM Berhad and the station across it is, I think, already a hotel although we didn't enter it. KL Sentral is the new railroad station of KL where most of their trains pass thru.

National Mosque


When we got back, we were finally able to enter the mosque. They lend women robes (so cute they're in purple hehe) and you have to be barefeet. When we went in I admit I was a bit scared. It must because of my ignorance of what to do and not to do in their place of worship. There were people there who oriented us on some things about the Muslim faith. I don't really remember much of it now. They handed us pamphlets about Allah and Koran and some other things you need to know about Islam. This is going to be those TMI (too much information) moment but I just have to share: when we were about to get out of the complex, I was reading the pamphlet and it's written there that women who are menstruating are not allowed inside the mosque and I'm like ohmigosh I have my period and I'm inside their mosque I'm gonna get killed here! Joema was hurrying me to get out of the place and even joked that "Is this our till death do us part already?" hehe I hope I don't offend any Muslims reading this..I'm so so sorry.

Titiwangsa Lake

It was just amazing to find a lake in the metropolis. It's like a park and that were the Eye in Malaysia used to stand. Too bad it wasn't there anymore around that time. Like in the National Palace, the bus stopped for 5 to 10 minutes at this place.

KL Tower


We didn't go up the tower, we just had our picture taken on the grounds. The bus also stopped here for a good 10minutes. There's a revolving restaurant at the top floor of the tower so it will also be worth it to go to the top plus you get to see a bird's eye view of KL.

Chinatown


We went back to Chinatown for some shopping. Bought shirts and keychains for our pasalubong. This was the last stop we made on the bus.

Here are the other places we've seen while inside the bus. We didn't bother to go down and have a look-see.

Stop No. 6, strip of Bukit Bintang; Stop No. 16 Sultan Abdul Samad building; Stop No. 16 Merdeka Square; Stop No. 3 strip of restos and restos

We went back and arrived at our hotel around 8pm. We expeirenced rush hour traffic in KL. We were so tired that night that we just ate at Secret Recipe along Bukit Bintang. Not really your hole-in-the-wall resto where you get to eat authentic Malay dishes but you can eat Malay dishes from there nonetheless. Since I was so hungry, I didn't really want to be adventurous in my choice of food that night so I just ordered the grilled chicken hehe. After eating we walked around the area only to find out there were a lot of hawker stalls there. Tsk! Should have eaten there instead.

One of the malls on the cluster of Bukit Bintang

This high-end mall was just across our hotel; this is the entrance along Bukit Bintang.

Mother and Daughter

Mama emailed me this. I love you too, Ma! Mwah!