My Usual November 1st

A lot has happened over the long weekend and I'm glad I set aside time for myself, some quality time with friends and of course, the usual Undas tradition of our family. We went to the cemetery along with I think, everyone else. After all, what is it to do on November 1st?

So we stayed at the cemetery most parts of the day. Lighted candles and said our prayers, played some cards with the kids, ate (a lot!) and ate some more. One cool thing about going home in Indang, Cavite is that almost everyone I know can whip up mouthwatering native delicacies like suman, biko (these are basically forms of rice cakes & I regret that I didn't even take a picture) and cassava cakes any time of the day. So this explains the ate (a lot!) description of how my day went. I brought a new book with me this time, it's called The Hunger Games- the first of a trilogy. It was mainly reading a few chapters before I grab a plate and started savoring our baon again and again. I gave the books to my sister Louise as a Christmas present and she's spent almost a year trying to convince me to read them but I kept on procrastinating. Now that I'm back on track, thanks to Eat Pray Love & Fat Cat, I happily and willingly obliged. :) Louise told me that the book will be translated into the big screen, to be released on March 23, 2012. I am very much looking forward to this already.

I reckon by returning to my old habit of reading books one after another, updating this blog comes along with it. And yes, I will try my best to sneak in here every once in a while and hopefully I come up with something worth reading (and writing) each time.

Ciao for now!

Grab a book and finish it.

So today I decided to do something I haven't done in a while. Instead of driving around to run errands I chose to take the bus and the MRT to my destination. It was kind of fun, considering that I was spared of the famous and always annoying EDSA traffic. To accompany me on my journey I took this book called Fat Cat with me, something I got hold of thanks to my sister Louise. A book which she also borrowed from her classmate. She was supposed to return it yesterday but I practically begged her not to. It's a long weekend and a good read is exactly what I needed. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a short-term relationship for I was able to finish it in less than 24 hours. I have to give myself props for 1.) being able to read while on the bus- Coming from someone who feels a sudden gush of motion sickness by reading a two-liner text message while on the road, this really is something. 2.) being able to finish a book on my usual time frame. (Eat Pray Love was good but it took me months). I remember I wanted to get to my destination quick but I was also half wishing for a little delay (thanks to the usual Imus-Bacoor traffic) just so I can crack open Fat Cat and read some more. It really is a good read. Somehow, I was reminded of the days when I was following the lives of Jessica & Elizabeth Wakefield of Sweet Valley Junior High (I hope this doesn't give you a clue how long ago this was) but Fat Cat is loads, loads better. It is fast-paced, hilarious and close to reality. Most importantly, this young adult novel has a heart. It shows a girl's transformation from a fat nobody to a hot somebody. It's not all about the looks, though. It's about setting a goal for yourself and working real hard to get it. It's about the value of real friends and the gifts of forgiveness. :)

How I fell in love with Bali

No. I haven't been there yet. I just finished reading Eat Pray Love. And obviously, my favorite part is Indonesia. I think it's the first book outside the J.K. Rowling-Stephenie Meyer-Dan Brown trio that I've actually finished. Not that I'm not into reading books, I've always been a bookworm! It's just that I fell in love with the works of those three that I find it hard to put them down once I started reading them. Everything else after that were books I read just for the sake of reading. I buy the books because I heard they're good, read the first few chapters, I take a break and put them down then force myself to progress by reading the next chapters if and only if I have nothing else to do or if I'm having trouble putting myself to sleep.

That was me while reading Eat Pray Love. Italy & India were a drag. I liked the book. I also picked up valuable lessons I can apply to my life from day to day. For me that's one quality of a good book. But I guess I didn't have enough strength to escape the realms of Hogwarts or the Cullens or even the Holy Grail. When I finally flipped to page 285 everything changed. I was amazed by how Liz Gilbert described Bali that I fell in love with it. Only six pages into Book Three and I already see my self walking the streets of Bali, Indonesia, enjoying the view of tropical treetops and rice paddies, visiting one Hindu temple after another, and taking countless pictures of tropical flowers. I already have everything in mind, it's like painting a beautiful drawing in a canvass and every important detail is already in it, the only thing missing on the picture is the main character which is of course, myself.

It's a dream I am already set of turning into reality. Will I travel alone? Oh yes, I plan to! Will I have the courage to travel alone when the time finally comes? I don't know! But that's the fun part, right? You keep some things a mystery.