band camp

It’s been posted in DS’ school that they’ll be having a band camp for both the regular band and the training band. It is so nice to see kids play and am glad that they have the chance to learn instruments as an extracurricular activity in school and at a cheaper fee than if going to learn at a music centre. It is costly though to buy musical instruments (no rickenbackers for sure, hehe) that the kids use. I heard from one of the P&C meetings that the band is running out of money. I hope the committee can come up with some sort of fundraiser so that the kids can still continue with the program.

tv drama: my princess

Just recently watched this and it was a good series, with a right mix of funny and touching scenes. Seung-heon is one of the first Korean actors that I knew of what with the popularity of Autumn in my Heart (Autumn Tale) back in 2000. It was one of the Korean series that put Korean series on the map.

About the series:

An ordinary college student, Lee Seol (Kim Tae Hee), finds out she’s a princess. The grandson of Daehan Group, Park Hae Young (Song Seung Hun), is put in charge of educating Seol on proper etiquette. However, Hae Young is put in a precarious situation when he finds himself drawn to Seol, the girl who will take away his inheritance if the monarchy is restored.

Trailer: (sorry, I couldn’t find one that was subbed in English)

body pillow

I remember when we were young we used to have a body pillow which we called po-chim  in Chinese. As I grew older I didn’t see a need for it and only bought another one during my first pregnancy. The body pillow helped in my sleeping positions what with a big tummy and all. It also helped propped me up if I really couldn’t lie down to sleep. Right now that po-chim is now being used by my brother, we left it when we migrated to another country. We haven’t gotten around to getting one here even though hubby likes to hug pillows when he sleeps. Maybe time to get a new one?

stars

There is a bit of excitement over in Manila the past few days as hollywood stars Rachel Weisz, Jeremy Renner and Edward Norton are there to shoot scenes for the latest installment of the Bourne franchise. Daniel Craig who is married to Rachel is also in town. I think the last time there was a shoot held in Manila for a hollywood movie was for a Claire Danes movies, where the Philippines stood in for Thailand. Can’t recall the name of that movie now, but Claire caused an uproar when she said that Manila was filthy and such. Anyways, back to Bourne, they’ve been shooting in Manila with Norton just arriving a few days ago.

thinking ahead

For the past weeks, most of the shops have been on sale mode again hoping to drum up some sales for the start of the year. We went browsing at one of the costume shops there to check if there were sales for the kids to wear later this year for halloween or even at book week. There were a lot of choices like nursing scrubs, knights, monsters, popular characters but none were discounted enough to warrant a buy. I guess we just have to wait until those dollar shops display their items.

movie : love sick

So if you watched “In Time With You (我可能不會愛你)” and loved Ariel Lin and Bolin Chen in it, they have a new movie out entitled Love Sick. It was actually filmed before In Time With You but released after the series aired.

Check it out:

holiday eating

I find that the past weeks I have added pounds to my weight. Even though our food consumption is not nearly the same as what we would do if we were celebrating the holidays in Manila but still I feel like there has been non-stop eating. And yes I know that I need to do some exercise but really all I want to do is just rest and take it easy while E is still on break from school and there are no activities to bring him to. We can probably use resistance band for some resistance training to help burn those fats. But maybe tomorrow .. for now looking forward to dinner haha!

tv drama: in time with you

One of my favorite actress is Ariel Lin. And I really enjoy all the characters that she has portrayed so far. It is nice to see her “grow” through her series/films over the years. A few weeks back, I was on a marathon streak for her latest tv series “In Time With You (我可能不會愛你)”.

Here’s a little synopsis from Drama Wiki:

On her 30th birthday, Cheng You Qing received an email on “the symptoms of premature aging” from Li Da Ren, her best friend of 14 years. Unable to accept that Li Da Ren is like a fine wine that will get better with age and she is like a grape that will dry into a raisin as years go by, she made a bet with Li to see who will get married first before they turn 35. As she looked around for a potential husband, she discovered that she was surrounded by unacceptable candidates, like gay assistant or cheating ex-boyfriend. The only man who could love her despite her stubbornness is her best friend. The only problem was that they both swore that they were not or will ever be romantically attracted to each other.

Check out the trailer:

In Time with You trailer

and if you like it, you can head on over to In Time With You’s channel over at viki.com (ps. Viki rocks!!)

gifts

If you still haven’t sent your loved ones who live overseas or back in Manila gifts for Christmas, you can still try and settle for flower delivery, just so that they have something to remind themselves that you are thinking of them. Or there are also tons of sale during these days (clearances for all those items they stocked for Christmas). In fact, gadgets are very much in demand (like say iPad2). So what have you given family or friends for Christmas?

sick again

The weather has been weird the past months. It’s been cold for the most part but then there will be days of really warm weather. And then it will be back to cold. It’s now officially summer and the first two weeks are cold and feeling more like autumn weather. With that S has been getting colds or coughs on and off for about 3 months now. We’ve actually been to the GP about 3 times now. And every time after the long wait, we are just sent home with the diagnosis that it is just viral. To just rest and take lots of fluids. This last visit though we know that it was a bit different, as S was having a little trouble breathing, more like shallow breathing. She’s on anti-inflammatory meds now and will need a follow-up check up. What I noticed is that the doctors here are more conservative in treating the patients. I’ll take you a number of visit before they even agree to do tests. I understand the need not to misdiagnose for the sake of the patients but then sometimes I can’t help but wonder if it has anything to do with the possibility of getting sued. Is that even an avenue here? Like in the US where it is common to sue, imagine how common when there is even something like a new york medical malpractice insurance. Oh well, I just hope that it really is the former and not more of the latter. In the meantime, off to the GP again for the follow-up.