Just love Adele.



Thanks for the heads up Jane!

I finished catching up with Bones' current season yesterday. I'm so bored, I'm rewatching some episodes. In no particular order, here are some worth seeing again. :)

The Man in the Fallout Shelter. It's a Christmas episode, and it's probably the most dramatic episode of the first season. The characters are not yet that close with each other, so they really bond during this lockdown. 

Two Bodies in a Lab. Kamon! It's a great Bones and Booth episode. Probably the first time Seeley saves her life.

Mummy in the Maze. Just because they're all in costume. Hehe

Woman in the Sand. The Jeffersonian finds Ruth Brennan's remains, and so many other family secrets are uncovered. Booth is such a great friend.

Aliens in a Spaceship. Bones and Hodgins are captured by The Gravedigger. I bet the note Bones writes is addressed to Booth, just as Hodgins is addressed to Angela. Consequently, Hero in the Hold is also nice to watch again since it's Tempe's time to save Booth.

The Tough Man in the Tender Chicken. Cute little episode, not just around the two main characters. Angela and Temperance got into a fight, good thing there's Sweets to explain and settle things. Plus, I like Wendell. Actually, subsequent episodes are really Booth and Brennan fluffy episodes. Season 4/5 is Booth head over heels about Bones, not that it wasn't there before.

Double Trouble in the Panhandle. Bones and Booth go undercover in the circus, so awesome.

Fire in the Ice. They go ice skating in the end. Practically the last three minutes of this episode sealed the deal for me.

Parts in the Sum of the Whole. They recount their first case together to Sweets. Then in the end Booth finally states how he feels clearly to Bones. Very sad episode in general though.

Death of the Queen Bee. Wendell and Angela come to terms with the pregnancy scare. Bones and Booth go to Bones' high school for the murder investigation and ultimately end up going to the reunion. They're so awkward and sweet on the dance floor. Creepy and fun episode. 

The Couple in the Cave. Hannah materializes and I just adore Bones so jealous. Plus the murder they're solving echoes much of their feelings, ish.

The Doctor in the Photo. Bones reevaluates her life because of a case that hits very close to home. Just when Booth is so into Hannah, poor Bones.

I don't hate poetry.

But I also don't like it. Though somehow, I want to develop an appreciation of poems. So let's see how good my Eng 11 teacher is. Haha. 

When I think of poetry, of course Shakespeare comes to mind. But beyond that, I also remember the movie In Her Shoes. I like the two poems featured in that movie, they were pretty good on their own but it is outstanding how it was incorporated in the film. After some googling, I found both pieces. :)

One Art by Elizabeth Bishop

The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant 
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.

--Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied.  It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

i carry your heart with me by ee cummings

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart) 

Parks

There are so many things to love about Baguio City: the cool, the trees, the strawberries. I can name more but the list may just eat up this entry. Hehe. My Aunt and her family lived there for around three years, and I have loved every break spent there. Below is a picture of Bea with my brothers Miguel and Marius, four years ago when we went to Baguio for Lent.

On a typical summer day, Bea and I would wake up around noon. We'd pick a movie from the shelf if there isn't a good one on tv, and then perhaps go out in the backyard and feel the wind. An alternative would be going to the mall or going to the park.

Ah, how I miss going to parks. Parks here in Manila are underdeveloped and unkempt, without any charm to lure people in. Back in Baguio, we used to bring food and eat at the lunch benches at John Hay, surrounded by pine trees and other families eating lunch out.  I miss having that option, now I can't even stay at the veranda because it's too hot. There are equal parts of quiet and dynamics in parks, you can just observe or ride a bike.  UP Diliman's Sunken Garden is a good bet I suppose, but at this time of year the grass have all shriveled and dried up. To be fair, especially during Christmastime, the Sunken Garden looks wonderful.

I wouldn't know any in the country, but how cool if parks here had Wi-Fi? Hay, what an ideal park would that be. Hehehe. It'll be a good alternative study area for students like me. If we had one here in Metro Manila, I'd be there in a jiff!

While parks are more common in temperate countries, I'd like to see more parks in the Philippines. We don't have to stick with the common park make up, we can build parks that uniquely reflect our culture and community. It's a good way to showcase our appreciation for the environment, as well as a good avenue to promote family bonding. I'm getting tired of going to malls, aren't you?

Disney Kid

I was doing post labs and starting my progress report presentation, while listening to Mulan's soundtrack. Then I got curious what the exact lyrics to I'll Make a Man Out of You are. Now I'm stuck at YouTube, listening to other movies' soundtracks. Oh, I am such a Disney kid. So while I'm still a bit giddy, here are my favorite Disney movies arranged in self-assigned categories.

My favorite non-animated Disney movie would have to be Mary Poppins. I really am happy to see it every time. I don't know how or why Mary Poppins lives on the clouds, but hey it's cool. I tried a lot of things from this movie: pretending to drink medicine that changes color (I had primary complex, so yeah I had a lot of medicine with varying colors), drawing on pavements, and some more.  Julie Andrews was a big hero for me when I was younger, and she still is. But for more contemporary Disney, it has to be Enchanted. More than being an Amy Adams follower and McDreamy afficionado, it was such a fun fun movie. Plus, So Close is an awesome song. Diba?

For the animated movie category, I am very much torn between The Lion King and Tarzan. The Lion King, I think, was one of the first movies I saw in the cinema and it just stuck. I was I was so thrilled when my brothers, especially Miguel, found it as interesting. Only a few years ago did I realize that the story was so much like Hamlet, that it was really a loose adaptation. Oha. As for Tarzan, which was incidentally one of Miguel's favorites as well, I thought the soundtrack did so much for the movie. Not that the Lion King had bad music because it had really good music, but Phil Collins singing such excellent songs is simply hard to beat. Hercules rocks too. Toy Story was good also, but no LSS for me.

Since I'm a girl, there has to be a favorite Disney princess category. It has always been Belle from Beauty and the Beast. Mulan doesn't technically count but even if she did, I think she won't topple over Belle, maybe a tie. I like Belle because she is intelligent, kind, courageous and not a helpless bitch. There isn't as much fiction in the story as well, the beast can may as well be some unfortunate looking guy who turns out to have a good heart and because of that becomes good looking. Hahaha.

These are really old school choices, I know, but these movies are etched in my childhood. They told such great stories and they really hit the spot. Some say that the golden age of Disney films was from The Little Mermaid up to Tarzan, and it's true. I was already born when almost all these films were released, and I believe I saw them all. I was among the target audience of these movies and I must say they didn't disappoint. Most of my choices come with wonderful soundtracks, which is such a big thing when watching a movie. It sets the mood, enhances scenes, and becomes your LSS after watching the movie.

Okay, now that I've prattled away my thoughts, I need to get back to work. This Disney kid needs to go the distance. Progress report tomorrow~

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Images taken from the web

Kebab, Kabab, etc

Last Saturday, I finally got the chance to eat at Cyma for Tito Bobby's birthday. Cyma is if not the only Greek restaurant in the country, and we've been wanting to eat there for a long time. Greece has always been on my top must-see places, and I am equally curious about their food.

First, we had an appetizer platter of pita bread and various dips: hummous, tzatziki, melitzanosalata, htipiti and taramosalata. Tzatziki, which is yogurt with cucumber and garlic puree, stood out for me. Next came Roko Salata, which is a signature salad at Cyma. No wonder it's one of their best sellers, it's absolutely fantastic. I loved the crunch of the walnuts with the sweetness of the dressing and the freshness of the greens. The salad also included shreds of parmesan and sun-dried tomatoes. Yum! I have slowly been discovering and loving a number of salads, mainly because my Tia tries to go on a diet and I get curious when she tries new recipes. I have a new favorite; sorry apple and walnut salad.

I think our Gyros came next. They're cuts of grilled meat with tzatziki, onions and tomatoes. Something like a healthier shawarma. I got the chicken version while Bea got the lamb version. Then Ina's salmon, Tito Bob's chicken shish kebabs, and Tia's lamb chops arrived on our already full table. The salmon was nothing special but the kebabs and the lamb tasted great. However the lamb wasn't very tender, so minus pogi points for that. But most definitely, they have big servings of amiably-served and flavorful Greek dishes

Greek cuisine definitely raked up points on my palette. I really liked the taste, freshness and simplicity of their dishes, or at least the ones I got to try. From my observation, it's like Italian cuisine and Persian cuisine combined. The Persian influence was strong in the sauces and dips, while the Italian impact was manifested in the greens and herbs used. Now that I think about it, Greece is indeed between these two cultures, geographically speaking. Moreover, during the ancient times, these two civilizations were constantly trying to expand their territories hence the melting and forging of their cultures.

This food trip, and birthday celebration, has been a real treat. Can't wait for the next one! :)