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The greatest sacrifice

He was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; by His wounds we are hailed.


---Isaiah 53




Bear with me


I am still not in my usual mood. Something is really bothering me. Up to now I don't have idea what it is. My mind is still in hiatus. I am too lazy to move around town. I practically stay home these days. 


I need a diversion, but how I don't have clear idea what should I do. If I were in pinas, maybe it would be different altogether. In two days I shall be then back in the province for the observance of the passion and death of Christ. Easter will be spend in the beach for whole day family picnic. My family won't be complete this year aside from me, our eldest and his family had relocated months ago in a province far away and I doubt if they have intention of coming home for the holy week.


I have only Friday to observe and reflect lent. No fanfare, no crucification to witness, no station of the cross, no visita iglesia. No beach. I will devout the whole day for reflection. Saturday I have work. 


I just hope comes easter, things will be different.



Clueless


I Am not busy and in fact I have nothing to do these past few days. My mind and body seemed to not functioning since Sunday. I have no idea what was happening to me. I spent the whole day in my room, in bed. In fact I hardly eat that day, I was hungry I know but I did not take solid food. It was only later that afternoon when I decided to cook instant noodle. As I don't like the taste of it, I added beef meat, pichay, garlic, onion, and eggs to better the taste. With slice bread, that served as my food intake for the day. I can't focused on television, I hardly touched my mac, and worst I had no sms received that day. I dragged myself for the six o'clock mass, and while on it I can't focus. I hardly remember what was the gospel and homily. In fact I did not wait for the final blessing as I hurriedly went out.  I heard mass within town and not in the city, and when this is the case I usually pass by the mall to catch movie and or just have dinner. Even that I skipped. I went straight home. I hardly eaten and in fact nothing changed since I woke up that day.


And it was the same the next day, Monday. Something was bothering me but I don't know why. I had difficulty getting up from bed. Coffee, hot shower, and laundry chore hardly made impact in my slobbish state. My usual lunch bought from the hawker center became tasteless and half eaten. I tried to sleep but I just can't. I really don't understand what was happening to me, and the fact that no matter how I tried to freed from it, I just can't. 


So no wonder the next day at work, I was in complete mess. Buti na lang wala masyado activities sa site. But the feeling stayed the same the whole day. In fact at midday I was tempted to file a half day leave, but I knew it was not possible so I ended up dragged the time.


Until today. But now that I can write this, I guess I am going back to my usual self. 


But still clueless what really hit me.



By the way I went to the earth day event in Esplanade Park last Saturday, so that means my room was in complete darkness for four hours that I was away that night, more than enough the earth hour requires.



Got these pictures.


Before



During





After



60 things to do during Earth Hour


Comes Saturday night at 8:30 in the evening, for one whole hour there will be darkness. Do you have plan on what to do? Allow me to give you a list on what can one do in the dark.




1   top of the list is attend the Earth Hour event nearest you.


2   gather family and friends for a star gazing picnic night in your local park, or in the beach.


5    roam the neighborhood and see what the neighbors have switched off.


13    turn on all the lights in every room and timing how long it will takes before someone knocks on your door.


17    get drunk alone in the dark, like you usually do right after break ups.


21   sit in the dark and shares stories, of course with someone other than your pet.


39    go for a long drive with the headlights off, not alone someone has to call 911.


47   tuck yourself and your dovey in bed for good 60 minutes, procreate the next generation of earthlings.


51   prove yourself that you can go 60 minutes without updating your facebook status.


58   congratulate yourself you survived videokeing without the teleprompter.


60   start a pool on whether there will be a baby surge in nine months.





Please do your share.



The weatherman :)





Home on a Monday

I decided to stay home the whole day and planned to catch up sleep and lazing around. With that in mind I slept late last night, so I would be waking up say past nine in the morning. Alas I woke up at six in the morning but I stayed in bed for a couple more hours. 


I had my breakfast of hotdog and egg and coffee, while catching up the live telecast of The Amazing Race. After that I can't think of things I should be doing. Boredom strikes, and when I am bored I move things around me.


This used to be the position of my bed for months now. 



Now it is the table who occupy the space. I pushed my bed to the corner to give an impression of a bigger space.




The funny part is that I am going to leave this room and move to a bigger one with a  queen size bed next week.



There is no eat bulaga on the internet today. I tried to take an afternoon nap but I just cant sleep. So I decided to finish reading this book. While doing it I was listening to shamrock , itchyworms, stonefree, and up dharma down songs on iPod.



The novel derives from the author's blog of the same title. An arrogant hiring partner at a major  law firm who is obsessed of becoming chairman,  blog to tell the world about what life is really like at the top of his profession. He takes solace in degrading his summer interns and hapless associates. The  book is funny and surprisingly interesting to read than the blog itself.






Penida's House at your serbis


Yesterday night I watched the movie Serbis at Picturehouse at The Cathay Cineplex, my first time in this place.

 


I went straight after work to catch the 7:25pm schedule. I arrived quarter before 7:00pm and bought ticket at the ground floor of the building, the cinemas are on the 5th floor. There is on-going photo exhibit of the old cinema buildings and other movie memorabilia  at the ground floor lobby.




I took a quick japanese meal at Quickbites in the basement level. This is the same japanese food I partaken at Tang's Market only of different resto name. Indeed it takes me only 10 minutes to consume the food. 



I went straight to the fourth floor where the cinema lobby is. Aside from the Picturehouse, there are 7 more regular cinemas in this building. 



The Picturehouse has an exclusive lounge where you can have your refreshments as food and drinks are not permitted inside the theater. I didn't come in, the door sign says close.



I was the first to come in then others followed after I was settled in. The theater was half full or maybe a little over. I seated unaware on the wrong seat so I was rudely been told to vacate at once by the manly guy who smells fish, you know what I mean. He is with his two friends and I suspected they came to not to watch but to see the movie. And they were not disappointed as Coco Martin semen covered genital was exposed right after copulation, imagine that. 




Serbis is a story about what's going on inside a dilapidated movie theater and the dysfunctional family who runs and owns it. I will not tell you here the plot of the story, but my opinion on how do I find the movie. The movie is visually gruesome and filthy. The director way of story telling is liken to a juggler, and  he doesn't care to resolve all of the subplots he is juggling.  As he is not contented with the patrons lip smacks, moans, offers of serbis and mumbled haggling, he trains his nakakahilong roving camera on the family walking and running, the disgusting flooded toilets, and lahat ng dugyot in explicit detail pati nga pigsa pinatulan. There is one scene where the projectionist is urinating on the bottle because maybe he is too lazy to go to toilet or Mendoza just want to expose another genital, again the three guys were roused to see the huge manhood.This is Mendoza telenovela. Imagine a goat running inside while the film is showing and the moviegoers end up chasing until the goat is gone ( Comedy) and a thief entered the building being chased by a policeman (Action). 


And Drama - Penida matriarch brings to court her husband for bigamy. In an ironic twist, his son Jerome opts to testify on behalf of his father. His reasoning is simple - a guilty verdict would mean his father has legal obligation to his current family  which means may makakahati pa silang magkakapatid  sa mamanahin when his father leave earth. He and his siblings neglect about their mother's feeling, lahat ng paghihirap para maitaguyod sila mula ng iwan sila nung tatay nila. I don't know how much is left for them that made the siblings connive against their mother, Mendoza didn't tell he is busy showing the filthy moviehouse.  A mother's revenge or cash for desperate family? Mga anak na walang utang na loob.


I like Gina Pareno character in the movie, strong-willed matriarch. She was at her best when she comes down on stairs and went straight to the ticket booth, you can feel her character. 


Serbis is an art film according to Mendoza, a negative depiction of the country and it's people. So slumdog. A couple didn't bother to finish the movie, they left abruptly in the middle of the showing. I have one suggestion to Mendoza, please watch and study "Himala". There are other ways of being extremely creative under worst circumstances.



Sunday day out

I thought last Sunday was second sunday of the month so I went to Novena Church in the morning to attend the tagalog mass. I was wrong, I was not able to hear mass  but planned to go back in the afternoon for the 5:30 pm schedule. After leaving church I went to my second itinerary for the day.




At the Supreme Court of Singapore, for  the Living Courthouse. For two days the Supreme Court building opened its doors to the public to see, learn, and explore about Singapore's legal system. Every floor level, nine of them plus two basements, have activities lined up. Upon coming in, visitors will be subjected to security check the same as that in the airport and will be given a leaflet. In it listed all the activities, highlights, do and dont's, and the Justice trail. The justice trail contains 12 questions for you to answer during the course of your tour and upon completion, a souvenir item can be redeem. I was determined to complete the task but after trying one I decided not to. 



I attended the enactment of a criminal proceeding, a humorous but real court hearing set up at the auditorium and not in a usual courtroom to accommodate a bigger crowd. Just imagine how many people turn out to the hearing, and this is just for this particular schedule which is done every 30 minutes.


The Accused, The Big Bad Wolf for causing the fall of Humpty Dumpy.

The Witness, the Blind Mice, was called in to testify against the accused.


After this I decided not to complete the whole trail. I went up to second floor and marveled the interiors of the building. It is a modern new building of steel and concrete.



After that I rushed up to the top floor. From the outside, this floor resembled of a spaceship that landed on top of the building. It is conical in shape as the windows  at a slant.  



From the inside you can have a panoramic view of the vicinity. 




The top floor is housed the Court of Appeals. The tour guide explained the layout of the hall, from the reporters designated place to the audience viewing place. I did not pay much attention to what she was saying as I occupied myself wandering to the interior of the room. I thought it looked smaller with all the division but I overheard her saying that actually it is a lot bigger as compared to the old building.





From the top floor I took the elevator straight to ground floor and decided to leave the building. Just outside I bought a souvenir mug. For buying it I got a free shoe bag, the one you will get if you completed the 12 questions on the justice trail I mentioned above. Hahah so I made a wise decision then not to complete the 12.


I had a quick lunch at the nearby Peninsula Plaza. This place is where Burmese  can claim their own. Everything here is Myanmar, like Lucky Plaza for Filipinos. Basement level is where you can find some nice and cosy restaurants that offers Mynmar cuisines. I opted for over the counter food so that I can see the food. I choose three from the display, fish, chicken, and a soup. The food look the same to any asian food and surprisingly delicious but with a very distinctive taste. Serving is small so it is a bit expensive. I like the taste and I must say it is much better than the thai food and considering that it is an over the counter food. Difinitely I will come for more and try one of the restaurants there.





After that I was on to my next destination, where else but to Suntec for the last day of IT Show. I almost back out upon reaching the place, it's people everywhere. Elevators had to be regulated to prevent breakdown. But still I braved myself though I have no plan of buying any gadget this time and wait for the PC Show on June instead. But i'm not closing for a good buy.




Judging from what I observed of people coming out of the hall, it was pretty obvious that printer was selling like a hot cake, and followed by notebooks. Who says Singapore is in recession? Sale during the three days was higher compared to last year according to the local news. I ended up buying my mac a shell and keyboard guard, though I don't like the color brown  but I have no choice as it was cheap and the only one left. I was hoping to buy for a steal a 500gb external password enable HD, but the price in the show was pretty much same compared to regular store.




I left Suntec and proceeded to Esplanade promenade for a steamboat dinner, my fourth time here.



After dinner, and while on my way to the nearest mrt station, I suddenly remember I was supposed to go back to church to hear mass. I hope HE is not mad at me. Does attending next Sunday two masses compensate? 


By the way Big Bad Wolf was acquitted, in case you are wondering.