Postcard from Slovenia

Lake Bled was postcard pretty! I froze my a** off, but it was well worth it (and the sun eventually came out!) What is going on with this cold front? I thought as long as we keep on traveling south, the weather would warm up -- but cold air seems to be following us south from Vienna, Prague, Budapest and now Ljubljana. But nonetheless, all is going well with the trip. Can't believe we've been away for more than 30 days now. See you all in December!

J x

Status Messages I Wanted to Post on Facebook

Since The Great Flood has turned Facebook into some quasi political message board I have absolutely no interest in...


Jona is....

• very far away.
  
  
• in the Isle of Skye (It's ok, Wikipedia it. There's no shame in that.)
  
  
• in Inverness (yes, where Macbeth's castle is).
  
  
• sipping a half pint and a whiskey (you don't call Scotch "Scotch" in Scotland).
  
  
• going to Berlin on Friday.
  
  
• having the time of her life.

P at 5

I'm working on it

I accidentally hit the "Save" button when I was tinkering with the Html codes of this blog. So now I have an unwanted new template. Am working on the paragraph breaks to see if anything can be done.

Suggestions/tips on how to fix this would be much appreciated.

The Hollywood Version

The 7 o'clock News Version

My new trainers!

After over 5 years with my old running shoes, I thought I deserved an upgrade!

Because R tagged me! :)

My 15 Films

1. Usual Suspects
2. Dead Again
3. Serendipity
4. Y Tu Mama Tambien
5. Return of the Jedi
6. Godfather II
7. Milk
8. Sound of Music
9. Manhattan
10. Four Weddings and a Funeral
11. Thomas Crown Affair
12. Mr. and Mrs. Smith
13. Big
14. Empire of the Sun
15. Up (the last movie I saw in the cinema)
    

I think I should explain this list. These aren't my "all time" favorite films. They're just the first fifteen I thought of when I thought about "memorable movies".

Welcome, Lung-ga Lu!

Gabe Bondoc -- "Love Story" - A Taylor Swift Cover (From Romeo's Perspective)

Kabaduyan, but I love it!

Moving to the Midwest

Am spending some time in Chicago (yes, Illinois is still the Midwest in my book) to bond with family. Then I'm going to Croatia. And then Chile.

My favorite letter is C.

Watch this space, I plan to update it more frequently.

Cheers.

Four Weekends in July

1 -- the Pogi's are in town; lots of spontaneous dancing

2 -- a surprise visitor; one of the best weekends *ever*

3 -- work, on-line movies

4 -- good meals, aimless walking, bought Mom's birthday present

Four Weekends in June

1 -- Korean lunch, aimless walks, late night French Open

2 -- Damages 2 marathon (Season 2 is nothing like season 1)

3 -- Manila for Father's Day

4 -- two full days at the office

Four Weekends in May

1 -- foie gras, pizza and a nap at Shek O; art film in Yau Ma Tei

2 -- wandering around CWB

3 -- dinner at King Street Wharf and a walk to Mrs. Mcquarie's Chair

4 -- back from Oz

Four Weekends in April

1 -- Manila to celebrate my parent's 41st wedding anniversary

On that very special day last year my father said, "If had a shot your mother on our wedding night, I'd be a free man by now."

Priceless.

2 -- brunch with Monster, Joseph and Jack

3 -- Dragon Boat and work.

4 -- Guangzhou to see the circus and the zoo!

My thing with laundry

I have this theory that people have their favorite errands. Some people like tidying up their homes. Others like going to the bank. I know some people who feel this enormous satisfaction after paying bills.

As for me, I enjoy "doing" laundry.

I say "doing" because I really don't do my own laundry. At the end of the week I sort the clothes I've tossed in the hamper (dry cleaning and regular wash) and then I haul the week's worth of wash (I *heart* alliteration) to my favorite laundry a few blocks from my building. There are other laundry establishments nearer my flat, but they hardly speak English and there is nothing more difficult than explaining "starch" in sign language.

I don't even have to pick up laundry when it's done. Three days later the newly washed clothes hang from closet.

Hmmmm.

Now that I think about it, that's a little creepy. I think my doorman is getting *a little* too close.

Cappuccinos.... try them

Until 8 days ago, I drank my coffee black. For the uninitiated (which was me until 8 days ago), black meant a regular brewed coffee no sugar, no milk.

And then one day, a waiter corrected me, and he said, "We don't do "regular" here. That is for Americans." His tone was so pretentious, I loved it.

So I gave in and ordered a cappuccino. This people, was a big deal for me. It had been years since I last had one (I mean like 10-15 years). I started drinking black coffee in law school and I never looked back. Cappuccinos and lattes were for sissys. And sugar was for the weak.

The coffee arrived. All foamy and sissy like, with the cocoa powder making a Rorschach-like pattern that I clearly read as, "sissy".

I had a sip. I paused. And then I asked myself, "Why, why have I been drinking swill the last 15 years?"

Cappucinos.... try them.

Read this!

If you have 6 minutes, please click on this link for a great description of happiness.

Am so happy I know what Critchley is talking about (pun intended). It's like reading a travel book for a place you've been to, or a recipe for a dish you've made for yourself.

Happy happy joy joy.

I heart Meryll

Waving the white flag at waves

I gave up the fight against curly hair about a year ago. After about 5 years of straightening my hair using all sorts of techniques, products and chemicals (relaxing, rebonding, you name it, I've tried it) I gave up. I gave up because I finally decided to listen to some very important people (my mother and father included) who told me they preferred my hair curly. Personally, I don't have a preference. I straightened my hair because it was easier to manage, not because of how it made me look.

I am so non-vain, it scares me.

Spam Haikus by Michael Lubic

I have never reproduced lyrics or poems on this blog before. I don't do that because I think it's inherently tacky -- not unlike wrapping your furniture in plastic. But my God... read these and say a silent prayer. Because only someone blessed with grace can come up with this. Haikus in red are my favorite.

Blue can of steel
what promise do you hold?
salt flesh so ripe

silent, former pig
one communal awareness
myriad pink bricks

you wait to feed me
stoic vigil on the shelf
ah my vibrant pink

jelly for mortar
seven hundred tins and more
i build a Spam house

my friend pork shoulder
I return to you. this time
i've brought mayonnaise

above all others
porcine treat without equal
there is but one Spam

clad in metal, proud
no mere salt-curing for you
you are not bacon

and who dares mock Spam?
you? you? you are not worthy
of one rich pink fleck

Grotesque pinkish mass
In a blue can on a shelf
Quivering alone

Oh Argentina!
Your little tin of meat soars
Above the pampas

The color of Spam
is natural as the sky:
A block of sunrise

Little slab of meat
In a wash of clear jelly
Now I heat the pan

Oh tin of pink meat
I ponder what you may be:
Snout or ear or feet?

In the cool morning
I fry up a slab of Spam
A dog barks next door

Pink tender morsel
Glistening with salty gel
What the hell is it?

Ears, snouts, and innards,
A homogenous mass
Pass another slice

Cube of cold pinkness
Yellow specks of porcine fat
Give me a spork please

Old man seeks doctor
"I eat Spam daily", he says.
Angioplasty

Highly unnatural
The tortured shape of this "food"
A small pink coffin

Slicing your sweet self
Salivating in suspense
Sizzle, sizzle..Spam

Pink beefy temptress
I can no longer remain
Vegetarian

For more nuggets of wisdom (or should I say slivers of hope?) CLICK HERE

Four Things

GHR-L "tagged me" in one of her notes on Facebook. As per Facebook etiquette, upon a "tag", I am supposed to replicate the same note, just with my own responses. I'm too shy to post this on FB, so here are my "Four Things":

A) FOUR JOBS I'VE HAD IN MY LIFE (just like GHR-L, all law related):
1. Lawyer
2. Teacher
3. Researcher
4. Intern

B) FOUR MOVIES I WOULD WATCH OVER AND OVER AND OVER (don't judge):
1. The Thomas Crown Affair
2. Legally Blond
3. Serendipity
4. Pretty Woman

C) FOUR PLACES WHERE I HAVE/WILL LIVE/D:
1. Manila
2. New York
3. Hong Kong
4. Boston? Chicago?

D) FOUR TV SHOWS I LOVE TO WATCH:
1. Grey's Anatomy
2. Brother's and Sisters
3. How I Met Your Mother
4. Entourage

E) FOUR PLACES I HAVE BEEN ON VACATION:
1. Beijing
2. Moscow
3. Boracay
4. Kuala Lumpur

F) FOUR WEBSITES I VISIT DAILY:
1. NYT
2. Facebook
3. Abovethelaw.com
4. Does Gmail count?

G) FOUR OF MY FAVORITE FOODS:
1. Chicken nuggets
2. Foie gras
3. Lechon
4. Chicharon!

H) FOUR PLACES I WOULD RATHER BE RIGHT NOW:
1. I could be in New Manila for the evening, but I'd want to
2. be in Hong Kong for the day, then
3. pick up the Wugga boo from day care in Boston,
4. then be back in New Manila for dinner.

I) FOUR OF MY FAVORITE PERFUMES
1. I only buy one bottle at a time. So the one I'm using now is Kenneth Cole (Woman)
2. before that was something made by Escada
3. before that was Johnson's Baby Cologne (Blue)
4. before that I didn't need perfume

J) FOUR OF MY FAVORITE MUSICALS
1. Rent
2. Avenue Q
3. Les Miserables
4. Turandot (do operas count?)

K) FOUR FRIENDS WHO I THINK WILL RESPOND: Not applicable

L) FOUR FAMOUS PEOPLE I WOULD LOVE TO MEET - DEAD OR ALIVE (assuming they speak English) :
1. Jesus
2. Michaelangeo
3. Da Vinci
4. Buddha or Confucius (since I mix them up all the time anyway)

M) FOUR THINGS THAT MAKE YOU HAPPY:
1. being with loved ones
2. being independent
3. a good book
4. the beach

3.5k, 32 mins 30 seconds

I've been keeping up the gym thing and I think I'm getting stronger. I still can't run to save my life, but now I can run/walk 3.5 kilometers with little effort.

Yay!

Spolier alert

The last time I read spoilers (or spent any time trawling for spoilers) was back in high school. R and I were obsessed with the American soap opera General Hospital and so we'd buy magazines (like Soap Opera Digest) to find out how the plot would develop. It was cute back then, two teen-aged girls crazy about an Australian man with bad hair, scouring through magazine racks in second hand book shops, looking for an obscure rag (yes, back in the 80's in the suburbs of Manila, Soap Opera Digest would be considered obscure).

Now it would be pathetic. Imagine a 34-year old begging off from fancy dinners and adult conversation to spend a few hours trying to find out what happens next on Grey's Anatomy... and I don't mean I do that... I just said, "imagine".

Anyway, thank god for the Internet; now I don't have to go out in public to look for spoilers. I just need Google. And if you must know, Grey's Anatomy is in haitus until April 23; Brothers and Sisters is off until April 19 and Entourage has started shooting its sixth season.

Pintuang dilaw

One of my favorite restaurants in Hong Kong is this place called Yellow Door. It's in the 6th floor of decrepit building and seats only 40 people. It probably seats only 15, but the owners squeeze in 40 people.

The menu has only two pages and when you order a Coke, they hand you a can and a straw. It's *that* kind of place.

But my goodness, the food. The food just tastes so good. It's Szechuan with a Shanghainese twist and every dish I've tried so far has been superb. It's either technically superior (like their chicken in dried chili) or surprising and innovative (like their eggplant in chili).

If you're ever in Hong Kong, remind me to take you here.

BPI Phonebanking from outside the RP

For those of you who keep your BPI Express Teller cards alive to pay Manila bills even while living abroad (like moi), I've found useful set of numbers that you can use to access the BPI Phonebanking/EPS system from outside the Philippines.

You're welcome.

Books I read in '09

With the first quarter over (yes, the dates of this blog have no meaning), I am happy to report that I am keeping with my 3 books in two month quota. In fact, I'm about a book and a half (or one month) ahead. So far I've read the following:

1. Mere Anarchy, Woody Allen
2. I Feel Bad About About My Neck, Nora Ephron
3. Flying Leap, Judy Budnitz
4. Better, Atul Gawande
5. How They Met (and other stories), David Levithan
6. Why I'm Like This, Cynthia Kaplan

I'm currently reading Thisbe Nissen's Osprey Island and when I'm done with that, I'll move to The Maytrees byAnnie Dillard.

Speaking of airlines...

If you fly between Hong Kong and Manila regularly, you can aslo try Dragonair and Philippine Airlines (in addition to Cathay Pacific). Both these airlines offer on-line booking.

Dragonair competes with Cebu Pac prices, but doesn't have a Manila-Hong Kong flight on Sundays, so that's a drag. If you're willing to fly on Monday morning, fare is as good (maybe even cheaper) than Cebu Pac.

PAL has good schedules and competitive prices, but I don't fly PAL on account of their ugly website and stupid booking procedure (i.e., You can't pick outbound and inbound flights separately. PAL combines the flights for you and you're supposed to pick from the different sets. I refuse to participate in such stupidity.)

The other CP

I've had enough of Cebu Pacific.

It's not the mishandled luggage that bothers me. It's the 90 minutes of fear that grips my heart when I'm on board one of their flights. The A320's just seem too small for the trip across the South China Sea.

And while I will always be grateful of Lance Gokongwei and the people at Cebu Pacific who have made travel accessible to "Every Juan", my days of traveling on Cebu Pacific are over.

I've booked the next flight home via Cathay. It's more expensive, but the relief is worth every cent.

Five weekends of March

1 -- work. In this market, this is a *very* good thing.

2 -- chill. Watched a Canto play on Saturday and Lisa Ono on Sunday.

3 -- Republic of China. Taiwan is like Hong Kong. Just bigger, cheaper, and less interesting.

4 -- work. See above.

5 -- chill. Badminton, dimsum, flat hunting.

The Fray - You Found Me - Acoustic

My favorite song (for now)

Blog block

I have blog block.

I also don't have that much material. There hasn't been much going on apart from work (a lot of it), the occasional amazing meal, the couple of visits to the Chinese doctor (for a pulled muscle that wouldn't go away) and watching the French actress Juliette Binoche dance for an hour (she's not amazing, but she's very competent).

But March should be more interesting and hopefully that translates to more blog posts. Coldplay and Taipei. Yehey!

Viva La Vida

One of the cool things about living in HK is that I can watch these really amazing concerts. Since moving here I've seen The Cure, The Police, Alicia Keys and Diana Krall. In a couple of weeks I'm seeing Coldplay. (Dad, this is the band whose lead singer is Gwyneth Paltrow's husband) SQ. is flying in to see the concert as well. That should be a fun a evening.

Tai O, Tai O, am off to see Tai O

So over the weekend I schlepped over to Tai O with (the other) C.C.

Tai O is a fishing town in Lantau island. C. wanted to take some pictures and since it has been months since I took my camera out its bag, I decided to tag along.

Tai O has been referred to as "the Venice of Hong Kong" and the HK Tourism Board says "enchanting [Tai O] is an amateur photographer's paradise". So of course we had to go. For HK's Venice we endured a 30 minute train ride and then a 45 minute bus ride.

And it was a dump. Sad, really.

See for yourself.





The good news is I still managed to take a couple of pretty pictures.

Random nerdy thought

The word "cleave" means both to stick and to split.

Wala lang.

My nephew is better looking than yours

4 weekends of February

1 -- work (Who knew the pace of work would pick up again? No complaints from me)

2 -- V-day in Manila with the parentals

3 -- Oscar movie marathon

4 -- the first of many ping pong Sundays. Yipeee!

3 books in 2 months

I'm trying to read at this pace this year and so far, am on track. This will lead to a final count of 18 books this year.

I'll be happy with 15.

My bets for this year's Oscars

Best Actor

Who should win:

Sean Penn in “Milk”. Penn *was* Harvey Milk. You forgot you were watching the same man who played the brooding (macho) cop in Mystic River.

Who will win:

Sean Penn. But if the homophobes in Hollywood (let's not forget Brokeback Mountain) give the Oscar to porn star Mickey Rourke for his work in in “The Wrestler” I wouldn't be surprised.

Best Actress

Here are the nominees:

Anne Hathaway in “Rachel Getting Married” (Sony Pictures Classics)
Angelina Jolie in “Changeling” (Universal)
Melissa Leo in “Frozen River” (Sony Pictures Classics)
Meryl Streep in “Doubt” (Miramax)
Kate Winslet in “The Reader” (The Weinstein Company)

So far I've only seen Doubt and The Reader. And whatever happens, Kate Winslet should not win. She was competent for sure, but apart from baring her breasts in 6 separate scenes, there was nothing memorable about her performance. Meryl Streep makes acting look easy. She is a god.

I plan to see Rachel Getting Married and Changeling before the awards, and if I do I will update this post.

Best Supporting Actor

Who should win:

Robert Downey, Jr. in "Tropic Thunder". Downey plays an Australian actor who for a role in a war movie dyes his skin black and plays a black soldier.

Who will win:

Heath Ledger in "The Dark Knight". He's dead. You can't beat the dead guy.

Best Supporting Actress

Who should win:

Penélope Cruz in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” Penelope brought "psycho bitch" to a new level in Barcelona.

Who will win:

Penelope Cruz. But if the Academy gives it to Viola Davis for her work in "Doubt", that'd be great too. Davis held her own in a 12 minute sequence with Meryl Streep. Anyone who can go mano a mano with Meryl Streep for 12 minutes deserves an Oscar.

Best Animated Feature

Who should win:

"Bolt". This is Disney's comeback in full length animated features. It is smart, well written, well drawn, well directed. It is an excellent movie.

Who will win:

"Wall-E". This is a dumb movie. If you have not seen it, please stay away and re-arrange your sock drawer instead. If you have seen it and feel anything else but loathing towards this movie, you must like Chocnut. If Wall-E wins the award for best screenplay, I will shoot myself.

Best Director

Who should win:

Ron Howard for "Forst/Nixon". This movie is about a television interview. *Yawn* But Ron Howard makes it engaging. Almost exciting. Direction was masterful.

Who will win:

Danny Boyle for "Slumdog Millionaire". This movie is very good. And the direction is excellent. But it's a fairy tale set in Mumbai that uses flashbacks to tell a story. A story well told in a book called Q&A. With material that good, you don't really need to do much more. Now a story about a television interview, now *that's* boring stuff.

Best Motion Picture

What should win: "Milk". Go see it.

What will win: "Slumdog Millionaire". Because everyone loves a happy ending.

Mere Drivel

Woody Allen's Mere Anarchy is hands down, the worst book I have ever read. The book is a collection of short fiction that is meant to be funny but in reality is hardly intelligible. Here's the opening line to one of the stories:

"While perusing the Times movie ads in desperate search of the some bearable celluloid high jinks with which to palliate a summer of heat and barometric readings one associates with August in Yoknapatawaoha County, I had the interesting fortune to find a little oddment called, The Kid Stays in the Picture."

Don't think I'm stupid -- I know what he's trying to do. He's trying to be silly, but as you can see for yourself, it's not working. For writing to be funny it needs to flow effortlessly. Like Bob Hope delivering a joke. Allen's Anarchy sounded like a guy telling a knock knock joke during open mike night at a comedy club in Des Moines.

All my glasses look alike

What's the big deal with adolescence?

When I was growing up, there was much ado over adolescence, how it's a difficult stage of one's development. How one will feel lost and confused and because of that will likely become depressed and withdrawn. How it is very important for parents and teachers to be sensitive to an adolescent's issues.

Um, I've been 14 and really, there is no big deal. Really. Move along people, there's nothing to see here.

Around that time I remember growing breasts and realizing I would not be able to play basketball anymore. Which I found sad for a little while, but then I quickly snapped out it. I remember growing hips and needing a new uniform for school, but again, not a life altering issue. Actually, no. It was. Back then everything was a life-altering issue. Will I get that new Trapper Keeper? Will R. be able to tape today's episode of General Hospital? Will Menudo come to the Philippines?!

I don't really understand what the big deal is. All adolescence is is advanced childhood.

My favorite song (for now)

Kings Of Leon singing Use Somebody. The song reminds me of music from my youth. A little U2ish, a little Rick Springfield-ish.

Bumped up to business

I think that one of the nicest things that can happen to a person is to get upgraded to business class. It's like the airline gods are making up for all the delayed flights, mishandled luggage and long lines you had to put up with over the years.

A free upgrade is airline karma.

Watching paint dry

Last night I saw Frost/Nixon with the parental units. For the 6 billion of you out there who don't know what this movie is about, Frost/Nixon is about the series of interviews of newly drummed out Richard Nixon conducted by an English game show host named David Frost.

Now if that sounds like a lifeless plot, well let me tell you this -- it *is*. Kudos to genius director Ron Howard to make this movie about paint drying not only bearable, but engaging to watch.

You should see it if only to catch Frank Langella's Nixon. Mahusay.

Oks na oks sa year of the ox

Happy lunar new year, everyone.
May you be healthy, wealthy and wise.

Oyster girl

I love oysters. I love them raw, steamed, pickled in vinegar, baked. I can eat dozens of them, and do just that, when I'm in the Philippines. Oysters in HK are frightfully expensive. One oyster can cost more than US$10. One oyster. For that price I can have two bucket fulls in Manila.

I wanna be Obama

Irrational rant of the day

I hate Chocnut. I really hate Chocnut. I think the stuff tastes bad. I think anyone who likes it is crazy or actually hasn't tasted the stuff and just wants to join the Chocnut "bandwagon". Why there even is a Chocnut bandwagon boggles the mind.

Now Flattops. I love Flattops. I wish I could get on the Flattop train.

Jona and the whale

The fridge and pantry cull

I reached into the fridge this morning to get myself some lemonade, when a jar of chili sauce caught my eye. "It's been some time since I used this stuff," I thought. So I take the jar and check for the "best before" date. It said, 31-12-07. It takes me a little while to realize the sauce has been bad (or at the very least not "best") for over a year.

I toss the jar out and think, "My God, what else is in there."

And for the next 15 minutes I cull the fridge and then, still feeling the effects of averted food poising -- my pantry. I felt bad for throwing food away (I think the waste is disgraceful), but even after applying my "6 months rule" (i.e., food doesn't really go bad until the sixth month after the best before date), there were still a few cans of soup that had to go.

Lesson learned here is NOT to stock up on things. Some canned goods don't last more than six months. Why do I even have so much canned goods?

The world won't end, Jona. There will be no catastrophe that will have you eating chicken soup out of a can for weeks. Park and Shop will stay open, it's ok.

Stuff

A lot of things happened this weekend. I was in Macau to eat, I watched Wong Kar Wai's Days of Being Wild, I cooked a corned beef omelet, and finished a collection of short stories called 10 Women Who Shook the World by Sylvia Brownrigg.

Now where to start? I guess with Macau.

C and I hopped on a ferry to Macau with the sole intention of eating well. And we succeeded -- lunch was at Litoral, a Portuguese restaurant in Taipa. Dinner was at Aux Beau Arts, the French place at MGM Grand. The pork with shrimp paste in Litoral disintegrated in my mouth. The potatoes gratin at ABA looked and tasted like it was taken out of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. If you're ever in Macau, try at least one of these places.

Back in Hang Kang, I saw WKW's 90's hit about the 60's -- Days of Being Wild. Someone once told me it was shot in the Philippines. It's not. Only about 15 minutes of it is *set* in the Philippines; and that part was all very "fake". It could have been shot anywhere. That said, I thought it was pretty good. Nothing compared to In the Mood For Love, but I like how WKW (like Robert Altman) uses the same "troop" of HK actors -- Maggie Leung, Andy Lau and Tony Leung.

--0--

The corned beef in the omelet was brilliant; the egg not so much. It was over cooked.

--0--

Lately I've been reading compilations of "contemporary" American short stories. These are what people call "modern" stories. No formal plot really, just descriptions of characters. And lots of magic realism peppered all over the place. In one story, the two female characters build the world's greatest monuments (i.e, the Great Wall, the Taj, the Golden Gate Bridge). In another story, the "Bird Chick" the main character puts up a production of Hamlet performed by a flock of swans.

As you might suspect, I don't like modern stories. They're too... well, for lack of a better word, modern. The plot (or what the writer tries to pass off as one) does not develop properly. The tone is at best artificial. The whole point of reading short stories (like smoking a pipe, listening to records, and drinking scotch old enough to order their own scotch) is to hark back to an earlier time. A time where men wore hats and women wore stockings.

Hmmm, well, not exactly.

I just mean anytime before the Internet. When people spelled correctly and followed the fundamental structure of the short story. And so I read these "modern" stories, and instead of being propelled to a familiar place, I am left grappling, figuring which way is up.

If I wanted to feel disoriented, I'd read poetry.

Dreaming of green pedicabs*

Until last night I didn't know I dreamt in color. Well, now I know. I won't bore you with the details, but last night I had a hilarious dream of me, 3M and A-M (in PP) going around in a dark green pedicab. I was driving (or should I say, cycling). I won't go into the dream because (a) I can't remember most of it and (b) it's one of those stories that are not as funny narrated after the fact.

You should've been there, but it was a dream, so I guess you couldn't.



*Pedicab is apparently a "real" word. I thought Filipinos made it up. Am sure they made up "tri-sikad" though. It means the same thing.

On corned beef

SMQ and I spent some time today discussing our personal preferences on how we like our corned beef prepared. And no, we're not talking about the boiled stuff you eat with mustard and cabbage. We're talking about the canned stuff. Yes, canned corned beef.

I realize that to most people (i.e., non Filipinos) corned beef is generally prepared from scratch. In the Philippines, when you say "corned beef", you mean the canned stuff.

Now there are several kids of canned corned beef. There's the "chunky" kind, the "stringy" kind and the "mushy" kind. Purefoods makes both chunky and stringy, but they are famous for their stringy kind. I'd like to think that purists such as myself prefer the stringy kind. "Imported" corned beef (Libby's, Palm, etc) is mushy. Chinese corned beef is mushy too. And visibly contains a lot of fat. I am not a fan (but not because of the fat content, but because it's not as salty as the local stuff).

There are various ways of preparing corned beef, although these recipes generally fall under two categories: dry and wet. Wet requires the addition of some water. Dry can mean almost crispy, though again, I'd like to think purists enjoy their corned beef somewhere in the middle -- sauteed with some cooking oil (with garlic, onions and tomatos), but with no additional water.

SMQ likes her corned beef sauteed with potatoes. A very American approach if you ask me.

The obligatory birthday and year in review post

I have tried to write out this post since the end of the year and until today have made little progress (as my regular readers know, the dates of my posts have but little relation to reality). Every day since the start of the new year, I sit at my desk and think, "What should I write about 2008? What fun and exciting things have happened?"

Lots of things happened -- I got to travel, I met new people, I reconnected with old friends. But I can't really draw up a list of accomplishments or name the "Top Ten Things that Happened to Me in 2008". All I know is that I was very happy in 2008. I don't mean to be inarticulate, but those two words sum up how I feel about my 33rd year -- it was a year I was very happy.

I don't mean to tempt the gods, the Evil Eye or as we say in Tagalog pwera usog, but my family and I were blessed with such good fortune in 2008, I wish only the same amount of luck or grace for 2009.

We don't watch movies like we used to

When I was growing up (i.e. the '80s and early 90's), people actually went to see Oscar nominated movies. Movies like Out of Africa, Tootsie, E.T., The Killing Fields, Witness, Rainman, Working Girl, Driving Miss Daisy. I can go on and on, actually. Silence of the Lambs, A Few Good Men, JFK, Pulp Fiction....

My point is that people used to go see critically acclaimed films as a matter of course. You weren't artsy or pretentious. You just went to the movies.

That's not how it is anymore. Now there are "commercial" movies (films people actually go and see on a regular weekend) and what I'll call "art house" movies (films that get nominated for awards).

I mean, who went to see "No Country for Old Men"? "There Will be Blood" or "Letters from Iwo Jima"? I'm I sure didn't. And I'm guessing you didn't either. Or you saw these movies only *because* they were nominated for awards. That's not how things should be. People should go see good movies not because a few critics say you should. You should go see good movies because you want to see them. Because they entertain. Because they make you feel good.

I think this new pattern of movie going has something to do with "award worthy" movies being released just days before the end of the year. Producers who think their movie has a shot at getting awards now release films over Christmas to maximize press during the crucial time between the end of the year and awards season (that starts in January). This gives regular moviegoers only a week or two to see the year's "outstanding" movies. For the rest of the year, we're stuck with Mama Mia and Batman.

This year you see the same trend -- movies like "Slumdog Millionaire" and "The Reader" getting Oscar buzz. Who has seen these movies? Who has heard of them (other than in the context of "these movies are getting Oscar buzz")? I'll probably see these films myself, but likely out of a sense of "obligation".

I miss the old days -- when I could see good movies on my own. When I didn't need to read Variety to know which ones they were.

Ode to Nin Jom

My name is Jona and I am hooked on Nin Jom Pei Pa Kao. For those of you who are not familiar with the most effective cough medicine in the world, this is your lucky day. Nin Jom is part cough suppressant, part nasal decongestant, part mucolytic, part expectorant, part analgesic, part sleep aid, part candy. In short, it is happiness in a bottle.

I strongly recommend this to anyone who has a sore throat or a cold or a cough or a bad day. The thick sweet syrup will coat your lungs and warm you up. The alcohol content will give you a pleasant buzz.

Trust me, you will feel better. Call me if symptoms persist.

New year, new layout

I hope everyone does not hate the new layout. (I have learned that I cannot please everyone, so I have not shifted my focus to not displeasing everyone.)

May 2009 bring you happiness, contentment and flying elephants.