Suits

Suits, a new USA Network series starring Gabriel Macht (Because I Said So) and Patrick J. Adams.

Gabriel Macht plays Harvey Specter, a hotshot undefeated lawyer and senior partner at the Pearson Hardman firm takes on a talented and smart new associate Mike Ross played by Patrick J. Adams.

I am seriously loving this new series. The episode airs Thursday nights at 10 pm.

The episodes are cleverly written, full of wit, sarcasm and charm.

Currently, it’s six episodes in and will run until the season finale to be aired on September 8, 2011.

Really hoping it’ll come back really soon for a 22 episode Season 2. :)

Best Meal of The Week

If you’re like me and you just LOVE Chinese food, I highly recommend the following restaurants in no particular order:

• Mongkok (you can read my review of the resto here)
• HapChan
• Gloria Maris
• Super Bowl of China

Best meal of the week came from Super Bowl of China. :)

My family and I first ate together at Super Bowl of China just last week before seeing the “It’s Complicated: A Valentine Concert in July” by Jose Mari Chan and The Company (wonderful concert by the way) at the SMX Convention Center. I’d always gone to this resto with other friends but never with my parents.

My dad brought home some food from Super Bowl of China last night. Imagine my delight. He got us the following:

(pictures taken from Super Bowl of China website)

Yang Chow Fried Rice

Eggplant with Minced Pork Hot and Spicy

Steamed Fish Fillet with Garlic

Deep Fried Cuttlefish with Spicy Salt

You guys reading this, I’m telling you. The combination of these dishes, it was like an orgasm in my mouth. And you know what? We ate these unheated. And it’s been sitting in our kitchen table for at least 2 hours before we ate it. Add to that maybe an hour for traveling from the SM Mall of Asia to our home. It was THAT good.

By the way, if you order food for dining in or to go, you get a pair of coupons that you can use on your next visit. I don’t know how long this promo goes on but we’ve gotten it twice and the it’s the same pair. You get a coupon for free Yang Chow fried rice for a minimum order of P750 on your next visit. You also get another coupon for P200 off your next delivery bill for a minimum order of P1000. Fabulous marketing strategy, I must say. :)

Battlestar Galactica: Cylon

This is one of the best rides in Universal Studios Singapore.

If you’re visiting, I highly recommend that you go on this ride. In the meantime, here’s a first person view of the ride:

The Avengers Official Trailer

It’s basically nothing. But it’s the first one. I’m sure the succeeding trailers will be awesome.

 

Who else is excited??

I miss the days when I had nothing to write about yet I had a lot of blog entries.

Compare that to having a lot to write about and yet having no time to write.

Tragedy.

Singapore for the Weekend

So I went with two of my closest friends (Carla and Royce) to Singapore recently for the weekend. We had so much fun. At least I did. But I think they had more fun than I did since they got to experience the night life at Clark Quay.

But before I share what happened in Singapore, I just want to acknowledge God’s blessings on me and my friends for letting us take this Singapore trip. There are people who can’t afford a weekend in Singapore while there are some people who can afford a weekend but don’t go due to time constraints. My friends and I could afford it and we had the time to do it too so I just want to thank God for it.

So here’s what happened:

• Tickets: I got my plane tickets from Cebu Pacific who, at the time, was offering the lowest ticket price. I chose to pay for a specific seat going to Singapore (P100). I paid around P7950 in total. Don’t forget the terminal fee (P1620) and another fee that I forgot what it was for (P750).
• Taxi: I arrived at the Budget Terminal of Singapore at around 1 am. I had to go to Terminal 2 in Singapore from the Budget Terminal to meet up with Carla before going to the hotel where Royce was checked in. The bus going to the “main” terminal was free. It arrives every ten minutes, I was told. The trip was maybe 10 minutes short. After meeting with Carla, we took a taxi going to Little India. The entire trip cost $69.80 SGD. I was told that was pretty normal because taxi fares after midnight is calculated this way: Regular Fare + 50% of Regular Fare + Night Differential + $3 SGD.
• The Hotel: We stayed in Hotel Aspinals in Little India. The room was neat. The bathroom was really small but I’m happy to report that it didn’t clog. The hotel fee included breakfast for two. Let me warn you: eat your breakfast somewhere else.

Mustafa Center was right across the Hotel and we bought some chips and bread and some jam because we were pretty hungry. We got red wine at the nearby 711. We got bottled water too which cost a little over $1 SGD. We drank the wine and slept at around 5 am. Woke up at 10 am, got ready and headed on to Universal Studios.

• Cable Car: We took the MRT to Harbour Front and walked around and decided to take the Cable Car ride ($24 SGD for a one way ticket and $26 SGD for a roundtrip ticket) to Sentosa. We walked all the way to Universal Studios which was a pretty long walk.
• Universal Studios: I committed the mistake of just purchasing the Express Passes ($48 SGD for one) for the three of us thinking it would be cheaper that way. When we got there, we were told that we needed to buy the regular tickets and that the Express Passes were an additional service. We all decided to just buy the regular tickets. We did the following:
• Revenge of The Mummy (must!)
• Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure
• Lunch at Marty’s Casa Del Wild
• Canopy Flyer
• Shrek 4D Adventure (must!)
• Enchanted Airways
• Battlestar Galactica: Cylon (must!)
• Battlestar Galactica: Human (must!)
• Monster Rock

We ended up leaving the park a little past 7 PM and took our cable car ride home.

Carla and Royce went to Clark Quay for some nightlife and I opted to stay at the hotel because I was so tired from all the walking we did.

Sunday morning, we woke up pretty late and had lunch at a nearby Chinese stall. We then went to Sim Lim, the place where they had the Merlion, had ice cream, then to Lucky Plaza, Chinatown and then to Clark Quay for dinner. We headed on back to the hotel to get our bags by 8pm and we were at the airport by 9:30 pm.

Useful tips for Travelling to Singapore:

• If you plan on doing a lot of walking, wear the most comfortable pair of slippers or sneakers that you have.
• Change your money for at least $200 SGD ($1 USD is equal to $1.20 SGD as of writing). Believe me, you’ll need it for transportation, food and shopping.
• Book your hotel early.
• Go to Clark Quay. They have excellent food choices. They had like a tent full of food stalls for relatively affordable prices.

That’s it! :)

Planned next stop: Hong Kong with Carla and Royce. :)

My First Time…

I’ve been wanting to do it for at least a year now. But I held off and tried to distract myself away from the temptation. It was dangerous, possibly addicting and so I tried my best to avoid it until I couldn’t hold off any longer. It was satisfying. Very satisfying.

Two words: online shopping.

Got to experience online shopping with Amazon.com for the first time. And I have to say the experience was a pleasant one.

What made me do it?

Well, remember my post about Sweet Valley Confidential (here and here)? Reading that e-book made me want to revisit the books I missed and loved. So I got me four books:

And since I also wanted to start exercising, I got me these dvds:

 

Regretting that boot camp DVD (the one on top), loving the 5 Day Get Fit Mix (right) and thinking I must have been crazy to buy a Jillian Michaels work out. It will probably be the death of me. Yes, I’ll look great but I’ll be a dead sexy person. LOL.

And so far, these dvds remain untouched and unused. I only watched the work outs but never did them myself.

Had these goodies delivered to a US address and then had Johnny Air Philippines ship them here for me. While I thought the service fee was a little expensive (a $20 consolidation fee was charged because the books came from different vendors on Amazon.com), the service was good and it came earlier than expected. It came four days after I gave my go signal to have it shipped.

Will I use Johnny Air Cargo again? Yes.

Will I be buying stuff from Amazon.com again? I’m trying not to or I’ll risk maxing out my credit card. :)

What I Have Been Doing?

It’s been more than a month since I last posted a blog entry and a lot has happened since then: TV series got renewed and cancelled, met Thor and the first class of X-Men, saw Jack Sparrow again, a new gadget and an adventure.

I’ll try to write the whole day today since I can’t do anything except write. I’m sick and I thank God dengue has been ruled out.

Posts will probably be hours or minutes in interval. Can’t say. I don’t know yet if I’m inspired or not.

But are ya ready? :)

Birthday Blues

In a few hours, I will be turning 28.

And I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately.

I’ve always said I won’t get past age 30. I don’t know why I said that in the past but that’s just how I feel anyway. I’ve asked the Lord that if He should take my life away, it should be on my birthday.

So. 28. Big number.

I want a REALLY GREAT birthday tomorrow. Something I haven’t had for the past few years. Last year, I did spend it with friends but looking back, I’m not sure if they had fun. Hell, I didn’t have fun because I was with an abusive boyfriend. I think I drank way too much too fast and I was asleep before anyone had gotten a buzz.

Anyway, I celebrate my birthdays with my parents (usually a lunch or a dinner) then have a party with my friends the nearest weekend to my birthday. This year, though, I’m not sure if I want the party with friends.

I’m having a crisis and it’s something that I would very much like to write about here but I can’t since it’s too personal.

So let’s focus on my hopes for my birthday:

• I hope to go to Santorini, Greece. Mostly for the scenery but I’m also hoping to be swept off my feet by an impossibly gorgeous straight man who is also sweet and kind and smart. Yes, I read way too much romance novels and watch way too many romantic movies.
• I hope to win big money in the lottery if and when I do buy a ticket.
• I really would like to get a gift-wrapped present. Something that was bought while thinking of me, just for me. You know? I haven’t gotten one on my birthday for the last couple of years. It’s always been cash from my parents and good cheer from my friends.
• World peace. Really. Sincerely. World peace.

28. I keep coming back to the number.

Sometimes, I think my twenties life could be made on to a chick-lit book. Only if I knew how it would end first. I really would love a happy ending.

So I’m 28, right? I am pretty happy with my job. It’s almost ideal. I’ve got a few trusted friends. Relationship with my parents are okay. Some would say we’re close but we have our moments as a family.

But sometimes I think what if I died? Or what if I was gone? How would things be different? Would I be missed? Will things be better or worse for some people if I hadn’t existed? I guess the main question is “What is my impact in this world?”

And “Will I always be alone?”

Yes, sometimes I feel lonely even if I am not alone. I’ve been single for four years (how about we don’t count the last one with whom I wasted almost two years) and like anyone else, I just really want to be with “The One” (cue music: dun dun dunnnnnnnnn). [While reading, please make sure to pause slightly longer than usual before “The One”. Thanks!]

Gah! Is this what aging feels like? Very emotional and very..ugh…something.

I think I may be undergoing quarter life crisis. My thoughts reminded me of the following poem:

The Quarter-Life Crisis
by unknown

It is when you stop going along with the crowd and start realizing that there are a lot of things about yourself that you didn't know and may or may not like. You start feeling insecure and wonder where you will be in a year or two, but then get scared because you barely know where you are now.

You start realizing that people are selfish and that, maybe, those friends that you thought you were so close to aren't exactly the greatest people you have ever met and the people you have lost touch with are some of the most important ones. What you do not realize is that they are realizing that too and are not really cold or catty or mean or insincere, but that they are as confused as you.

You look at your job. It is not even close to what you thought you would be doing or maybe you are looking for one and realizing that you are going to have to start at the bottom and are scared.

You miss the comforts of college, of groups, of socializing with the same people on a constant basis. But then you realize that maybe they weren't so great after all.

You are beginning to understand yourself and what you want and do not want. Your opinions have gotten stronger. You see what others are doing and find yourself judging a bit more than usual because suddenly you realize that you have certain boundaries in your life and add things to your list of what is acceptable and what is not. You are insecure and then secure. You laugh and cry with the greatest force of your life. You feel alone and scared and confused. Suddenly change is the enemy and you try and cling on to the past with dear life but soon realize that the past is drifting further and further away and there is nothing to do but stay where you are or move forward.

You get your heart broken and wonder how someone you loved could do such damage to you or you lay in bed and wonder why you can't meet anyone decent enough to get to know better. You love someone but maybe love someone else too and cannot figure out why you are doing this because you are not a bad person.

One night stands and random hook ups start to look cheap and getting wasted and acting like an idiot starts to look pathetic. You go through the same emotions and questions over and over and talk with your friends about the same topics because you cannot seem to make a decision.

You worry about loans and money and the future and making a life for yourself and while wining the race would be great, right now you'd just like to be a contender!

What you may not realize is that everyone reading this relates to it. We are in our best of times and our worst of times, trying as hard as we can to figure this whole thing out.

 

I really would like to end this post on a positive note. So I thought Katy Perry would help me out a bit. The song has great encouraging lyrics and well, frankly, I think this song should be played by anyone every time things get too depressing.

 

 

Here’s to hoping I’ll get a great 28th birthday! Cheers! :)

Wonderings on Sweet Valley Confidential

Sweet Valley Confidential.

I couldn't get over Elizabeth and Bruce. In the end, Elizabeth comes out the winner since she gets what Jessica wanted then: a gorgeous and rich guy who absolutely loves her.

But I personally would've preferred it to have been Elizabeth and Todd forever.

Anyway, I was wondering about the following:

• Why Amy Sutton was not mentioned at all?
• Why they renamed Lila's father from George to Richard Fowler?
• Why Lila did not seem to have taken on an active role in being Jessica's best friend? Wasn't she supposed to have become more mature in Sweet Valley University?
• Why is it that some parts of the book, especially Jessica's language and the way she speaks, seem to be written by a teenager and not of a woman?

Let me know your thoughts.