Miss Universe 2010 backs marriage equality for same-sex couples

What a day! First Fidel Castro owns up to the persecution of gays in Cuba while the island was under his command, and then this monumental story...

OK, I am kidding but this is sorta newsworthy.

While watching Miss Universe a few days ago (yup, I watched the actual pageant when it was broadcast back on August 22nd), it quickly became obvious that Miss Mexico - Jimena Navarrete - would take the crown this year.

And yet, when she answered her Top 5 finalist question on the effect of unsupervised internet use by minors and she said that it was important to teach kids "values" as taught "in the family" I cringed a little bit.  Not that it's bad to teach kids family values, but I wondered if she was simply parroting the "family value" rhetoric of the religious right in Mexico and elsewhere.

That, apparently, is not the case.

Interviewed yesterday on Mexican radio, here is what she said:

Salvador Camarena (W Radio): I want to ask you about a topic that has been very controversial and it's the topic of marriage between people of the same gender. Do you agree with this type of relationships...

Jimena Navarrete: Look, I believe that every person in this world has the right to profess the beliefs they have and I am in agreement. We have to respect what each human being decides to do with their lives, you know? Clearly, there are limitations, of course, also, as there are with heterosexual couples, right? Better said, there are limitations for any of the two - if they are heterosexual or homosexual - but I believe we have to learn to be respectful because they are people who are the same as us. There is no difference. And I don't believe it's just to discriminate somebody based on the gender they prefer, right? Based on the partner they choose to select, if it's a man or a woman. The truth is that I am absolutely against discrimination and, well, what can I say. I have many friends who are homosexual and I adore them. And they are equal folk: There is no reason we should want to set them aside, there is no reason why we shouldn't let them enjoy what they want to enjoy with their partner.

I've posted a link to the audio clip, in Spanish, below. The remarks on marriage start at the 4:50 minute mark...

Viva Miss Mexico! Viva Miss Universe 2010

Fidel Castro on persecution against gays in Cuba: "If someone is responsible, it's me"

A stunner of an interview with Fidel Castro was posted today on the site of the Mexican newspaper La Jornada. In it, journalist Carmen Lira Saade interviews to the former dictator at his home in Havana and discusses the US blockade, Cuba's relationship with Mexico and LGBT rights. Here is my translation of the passage in which the Cuban dictator addresses LGBT rights when he was leading the country.

[NOTE: The reporter writes in the first person and uses dashes for some citations and quotation marks for others, making the interview difficult to follow at parts. Nevertheless I have tried to retain the punctuation used in the original Spanish-language article from La Jornada].

Even though there is nothing that shows he feels any discomfort, I do not think Fidel is going to like what I am about to say.

- Comandante, despite the enchantments of the Cuban Revolution, the acknowledgment of and solidarity with a great part of the intellectual universe, the great achievements of the people against the blockade, in short, everything - everything - went down the pipes as a result of the persecution against homosexuals in Cuba.

Fidel doesn't shy away from the topic. He doesn't deny nor reject the claim. He only asks for time to remember - he says - how and when prejudice took over the revolutionary ranks.

Five decades ago, based on homophobia, homosexuals were marginalized in Cuba and many were sent to agricultural-military labor camps accusing them of being "counterrevolutionaries."

- Yes, he remembers, it was a time of great injustice - A great injustice! - he repeats emphatically - no matter who did it. If it was us who did it, us... I am trying to define my responsibility in all that because, of course, I don't hold that type of prejudice.

It is known that among his oldest of friends, there are homosexuals.

- But then, how was that hatred against the 'different' established?

He believes all was the result of a spontaneous reaction in the revolutionary ranks, which came from tradition. In earlier Cuba blacks were not the only ones discriminated against; women were also discriminated and, of course, homosexuals...

- Yes, yes. But not in the Cuba of the 'new' morality, the pride of those revolutionaries on the inside and on the outside...

- Who, then, was directly or indirectly responsible for not putting a stop to what was happening in Cuban society? The Party? Because the Communist Party of Cuba still does not 'explicitly' ban discrimination based on sexual orientation.

- No - says Fidel - If someone is responsible, it's me...

"It is true that at the time I could not take care of that issue... I found myself immersed, primarily, in the October Crisis [as the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 is known in the island], in war, on political matters..."

- But this became a serious and grave political problem, Comandante.

- Understood, understood ... We didn't know how to give it value ... systematic sabotages, armed attacks were happening all the time; we had so many problems, some terrible, problems of life or death - you know? - at we did not give it enough attention.

- After all that, it became very difficult to defend the Revolution abroad... The image had forever been damaged in some places, particularly in Europe.

- Understood, understood - he repeats -; it was just...

- The persecution of homosexuals could happen with be lesser or greater protest, anywhere. Not in revolutionary Cuba - I tell him.

- Understood; It's like when a saint sins, right?... It's not the same thing as when a sinner sins, no?

Fidel gives a faint smile, then get serious again:

- Look: Imagine how our days were in those first few months of the Revolution; the war with the Yankees, the how you think were the days of ours in those early months of the Revolution: the war with the Yankees, the issue of the armaments, and, almost simultaneously, the planned attempts on my own life...

Fidel reveals how they all had "tremendous" influence on him and how his life was changed by the life-threats and actual attacks he suffered:

"I could not go anywhere, I didn't even have were to live..." Betrayals were the order of the day and I had to go a salto de mata [an expression that means 'to live day to day']...

"To escape the CIA, which used to buy so many traitors, sometimes among my own people, was not an easy thing; but whatever, anyway, if responsibility has to be taken, I take my own. I will not blame others...", says the revolutionary leader.

He only regrets not having corrected it back then...

The article goes on to mention the work of Mariela Castro. Fidel's niece, in pushing for LGBT rights in the island and recent advances which include public health policies that allow transgender people to undergo gender-reassignment surgery free of charge.

UPDATE: A few English language articles have started to roll in...

• Fidel Castro takes blame for 1960s gay persecution (Reuters)
• Castro admits 'injustice' for gays and lesbians during revolution (CNN)
• Fidel Castro takes blame for persecution of Cuban gays (BBC)

Superstitions

I have to admit that I'm only superstitious during the UAAP season... You know how athletes do some rituals out of superstition? Well, fans also have superstitions. I, in particular, can't wear the opponents color on the day itself. I outgrew the whole lucky shirt thing though. For one season, I wore the same shirt to 5 games. Sometimes, I hid it under an Ateneo jersey. Hahaha.

What is it with superstitions? For some reason, a black cat crossing my path gives me the creeps. Especially when driving. Then there's the funeral procession wherein if you're on the road, you have to throw a coin when you pass by the procession.

We all have our different faiths. I think there's a line between faith and superstition. Kanya-kanya as they say.

What about you and superstitions? What do you think?

Magkakapatid (2010)

Magkakapatid (Kim Homer Garcia, 2010)

English Title: Blood Ties

Kim Homer Garcia’s Magkakapatid (Blood Ties) opens in a shack, disheveled and ominously in disarray from a previous bloody incident. Clues and remnants of what happened are littered everywhere. A bowl of dinuguan, a stew made of pig’s blood, meat and innards, is being feasted on by flies whose distinct buzzing complements the hurried reporting from the disembodied voice coming from the transistor radio. Human blood decorates the lowly walls and other furnishings in the house. A bloodied blade, presumably the weapon used in the hinted violence, menacingly rests on a tree stump.

Garcia, in the tightly conceived opening sequence previews the near-comical grandiosity of his film’s central encounter with the most of absurd of the realities persisting in the Philippines. The previewed violence, a murder of Cane and Abel proportions that sadly does not have the biblical story’s deeply rooted hate since the film’s murder stems from the bowl of blood stew that wasn’t meant to be shared, inspired by an actual news account of a man hacking his own brother, becomes the springboard for Garcia’s critical assessment of a society that is defined by the paradox that it is as closely knit by familial ties as it is separated by economic status and other variables. From the murder between siblings (Nico Antonio and Jerald Napoles), Garcia widens his reach and starts to detail the extended families of the victim and murderer, mapping the underlying frivolity and overt injustice of the grossly differing fates of their impoverished and sickly mother (Ces Quesada), their middle-class uncle (Julio Diaz), and their wealthy aunt-in-law (Racquel Villavicencio).

Magkakapatid fashions itself as dark comedy, one that mines humor from circumstances, however unlikely especially in a civilized society, that simply happen because of the long lingering perversities of capitalism and democracy. Through the quips exclusively delivered by the film’s two clowns, a chauffer (Archie Adamos) and a man-Friday (Soliman Cruz) who witness the overlapping tragedies right from the getgo, the film manifests its partiality for humor, no matter how heavy and persistent the drama onscreen are. It’s undoubtedly off-putting. Garcia seems unable to properly weave his intention of making apparent the hilariousness of the ludicrousness of the country’s sad reality into his picture with what is seen and heard in the movie. The result is both confused and confusing, an exhilarating mess that shape-shifts too often, too soon.

It’s a premise that shines with promise, a promise that Garcia manages to sustain during the first half of the film, where relationships, along with their unexposed angst and aches, carefully unravel. Halfway though, when all the characters’ stories have intertwined leading to what essentially is a staggered comedy of errors, Garcia suddenly loses control, forgetting entirely the very mannered way he teased his audience to going through the convolutions of his labyrinthine plot via the potent sounds and sights of his opening sequence. Frequent overacting from the reliable cast weakens the film’s stranglehold on reality, pushing the film closer outside the boundaries of good taste.

Watching Magkakapatid is truly a tricky affair. So much of it is good yet also; so much of it is bad. While it succeeds in depicting the crisscrossing paths of humor and drama, absurdity and reality, and family and society, it ultimately fails the balancing act that makes its well-meaninged depictions tolerable to the audience it seeks to communicate to.

(Cross-published in Twitch.)

Being in the real game is WAY more different

Today, I was on THE BIG MEAL with CJ the DJ and Suzy. I played Beat Suzy.

I tell you, I think Suzy was psyching me morning pa lang. She was tweeting that I was "SMART". I was like "Pressure much?"

But in the game, it's totally different. In the car, you scream the answer and all that but when you're in the hot seat, everything changes.

CJ was kind enough to give comic book questions but the HIP-HOP questions... Wala. Talo ako. The Joshua Tree, I can't believe I forgot U2! Nakakahiya... I was expecting a lot of 80s cartoons questions because off air we were talking about Jem and the Holograms. Who was the lead singer of the Misfits? I said Pizaz!

Eto pa, you know your favorite Disney movies? I loved Hercules. But frikkin "WONDER BOY!" I forgot! I said Golden Boy. Boo.

Seriously, it's different. But congrats to Suzy! :) It was a fun game!

Guys, listen to The Big Meal! Mondays to Thursdays from 12nn-3pm on Magic 89.9. Fun show!

Sports Day 2010

My boys had their sports day yesterday, this is the second year they participate. Last year, they had it in May, my mum was in town that time, she manage to join and cheer for the grandsons.

This year a bit quiet on our side, as older kids all go to primary school, only left three still in that kindy, my two boys and another cousin, Isac. Sport start at 8.30am and every parent will bring some food for the sport day. This year, i bought mee siam and i do the konnyaku jellies, and my sister in law bought vitagens for all the kids.



Sport day banner at the kindy...


the three naughty boys from Lee's family...


the awards for the kids, everyone the champion!!!


Line up before they matching out..my boys are in blue team with Isac too.



Isac lead in front holding Malaysia flag....




welcome and opening prayer, praise and workship, and sing Negaraku....

Then start the events with..........

- Hopping Kangaroos

- Models in the making

- turtle eggs

- Colourful H2O

- fishing for coins

- walking tortoise



Cruz in "models in the making", make sure the small pillow don't drop from the head.


Fearles with the colourful H2O, pour the water in the big container, see which group got the most water.


Fearles, fishing for coins...


Cruz turn for fishing for coins...

This year, the kindy set up a bouncing castle at the compound to let the kids have more fun time. I can tell you all the kids just can't wait to go to the bouncing castle and play, with the scorching hot sun, all kids were cover by sweat! Due to the hot hot weather, Fearles got nose bleed, lucky is after the event and while all the kids play at the bouncing castle, someone accidently kick Cruz's nose, and it bleed a bit. :(

Those kids after finish their event, they start to play at the castle, and the sport still continue with some event, where by participate by some ex students and also mummies.


look at the kids, having tons of fun time, jumping and sliding.






me and my sister in law, notice the colourful necklace on our neck? That is the game we participate. We need to put the beads slowly in a string and attach a smiley round token as pendant. You know, i always don't have the luck, and i always "kalam kabut", when i half way doing, all the beads drop and i have to start all over again and i think i got the last, and my sister in law got the second!! LOL!


The result, my boys's blue team got champion!!!!!

After the prize giving, we got refreshment, lots of food!!!! I am too busy eating, didn't take any picture of the food and the weather was too hot, we have to "hide" in the classroom and enjoy the food.

This year one of the teacher's husband, volunteer to get the kids face painting, another highlight of the day. Kids were having so so much fun.


Fearles want to paint a tiger on his hand...


Cruz decide to paint his face as tiger!! Cute?


After seeing Cruz as a tiger, Fearles want to have another tiger on the face...


this is my two tigers!!!!

After back home, had shower, then they took out their last year prize, they said want to show daddy their awards. Fearles took this picture, two were from last year, and another two are from this year. :)

That hot afternoon, we three were too tired, after another light lunch, we had a long afternoon nap to recover our tiredness. LOL!

Everything within reason

Sometimes, you just have to stand by a decision. The people close to you may not be as supportive as you expect them to but there are times when you have to prioritize.

Today, I stood by something where safety comes first. It wasn't a popular decision but I believe that safety will always be a priority.

I'm usually a very patient person. But it can hit you sometimes. I'm really sad at this point in time. :(

But things happen for a reason. I think I made the right decision.

Constantine and Skull

My Creation - Part 44

This is another bento lunch that i prepare for my boys two weeks ago, don't feel "sick" by reading all my bento post. ^..^





"chic rice", does it look like chic? hahahahhahah
baked beans, and omelette with mince meat and dragon fruits.

Afternoon tea break, i prepare them some bread, and i prepare some for the cousins too. Bread with cheese and butter and sugar, and since i make some konyaku jellies, so it's in the box too. Two elder jie jie, they prefer to have coco crunch in their box, my boys prefer to have some twisties. Simple and not so 'healthy" afternoon tea bento. :)

first time i am using rice mould to do the bread onigiri, quite interesting. The stack of flower bread, i use the flower shape cutter to cut them out from the bread and use a food pick to hold them together.

my boys's bento, dinasour and the bread onigiri.

Happy bento-ing!

TNTema - anos 80

Em 1980, minha família e eu nos mudamos do Jardim Boa Vista para o Jardim Raposo Tavares.
A rua não tinha asfalto e a nossa casa era a terceira ou quarta casa construída naquela rua, a Samuel Raven. O resto era mato.
A casa começou pequena e sobrou um grande quintal.

Aí veio a Laika, nosso primeiro cachorro.
Uma enorme pastora alemã capa preta e foi o cão mais amado que já tive.
Todos os cães que tive depois foram descendentes da Laika.

No caminho para a escola tinha uma ladeira bem íngreme e também sem asfalto.
Quando chovia era um inferno. Praticamente um esporte radical.
Por isso, sempre que precisava de tênis novos, pedia os Kichutes.
Me sentia um trator com aqueles tênis.

E na TV com estabilizador (este que um dia quase botou fogo na casa porque esquecemos de desligar) eu assistia Ultraman, Ultraseven, Spectremen, Goldar, Gamera, Robô Gigante, Patrulha estelar, Fantomas, Pinóquio japonês, A Princesa e o Cavaleiro, Pica-pau, Astro Boy, os infinitos títulos da Hanna Barbera, enfim... assistia tudo e lia um monte de gibis.
Gibis que comecei a ler porque o meu tio Jade que era dono de uma banca sempre me presenteava com alguns.
Ele faleceu a duas semanas atrás e esta arte é dedicada a ele.

Today...

...I will not be reading Mockingjay with the rest of the world.

Go ahead. Stone me if you must.

But, truth be told, I haven't read Hunger Games or Catching Fire yet, either. Bring on the torch and pitchforks, I know. It's not that I'm not interested in reading them, it's that I've been focusing so much on MG fiction that the YA stuff has pretty much fallen to the wayside.

So, unless you show up on my door with a YA book in your hands, chances are I won't be reading it anytime soon.

But at least I know that Mockingjay is coming out today. I'm not completely out of it, you know.

Just mostly out of it.

Cowboy

Ring Ring...Guess who??

These had been happen quite often lately...ring ring...guess who??

Two weeks ago, i was out for a girl's night out with my good friend cum ex colleague to celebrate Vivian's birthday. We are having dinner, enjoy ourself with the food and yakking, laughing. My phone rang, and i saw the name "father in law", ooopppss..father in law called me? Must be asking me where am i and what time i go home?

Pick up the call........

me: hello

caller: hello mummy!!! Where are you? What time you come home???

me: * Shock* why you use "yeh yeh" phone to call mummy? Where is daddy?

caller: daddy in the room play computer, i come to yeh yeh room to call you.

me: ok ok, mummy will be back soon.


************************************************************************************
Last week, while i was at work, suddenly receive called from father in law again, Fearles was not well that day, having same virus as Cruz, but he was mild type, give him medicine and let him rest at home. I thought father in law want to tell me something about Fearles...when i pick up the call......again.......

me: hello...

caller: hello mummy, where are you?

*faint*

me: mummy at work la, why you call mummy?

caller: because i want to see mummy.

me: why you ask "yeh yeh" to call mummy again? Where is daddy?

caller: daddy not come back yet, still working.

me: ok , you "mun mun" already? * ask him whether he had his lunch already*

caller: yes, now i play in "yeh yeh" room.

me: ok, better go back and have your nap.

caller: ok, bye.

*************************************************************************************
Today, i am smarter! When i saw father in law called....i pick up and said

me: hello

caller: mummy!!

me: i know it's you, why you ask "yeh yeh" call mummy again?

caller: *giggle* i ask "yeh yeh" to call you, i want to talk to you.


Now i should change my caller list from father in law to Cruz Lee!!!!!

Preview "O Cometa"/ The Comet

Andrea Lehmann

Andrea Lehmann

300th Post: "Who you gonna call?" and "COWABUNGA!"

For those asking about the "Writer's Block Book", it can be bought in Fully Booked. :)

============================================

300! Welcome! :) I haven't blogged as much as 2009 but I'm trying my best to be at par with it.

I'd like to share with you what made me happy as a child. They were cartoons! I love cartoons and I still watch cartoons. Yes, I'm 24 years old. I watch The Simpsons if I catch it. I watch anything about comic books. So if I see The X-Men on TV, I'll watch it.

But to those born after the eighties. Before cable, before Ben 10 and Pokemon. Kids like me back then had to wait for Friday nights. ABS-CBN showed to of my favorite cartoons back the.

The Real Ghostbusters and TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES.

Let's start with The Real Ghostbusters. Why "Real"? There was another cartoon called Ghostbusters and it had a flying car with no Proton Packs whatsoever... The Ecto 1 will still rule over a flying car! The Real Ghostbusters I'm talking about is the one with Egon, Peter, Ray, and Winston. :)

You had to be fan of the Ghostbusters! :) I can still here the theme song. If there's something strange in your neighbohood? Who you gonna call? GHOSTBUSTERS! I ain't afraid of no ghost! This was spawned by the movie with Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray. The movie was pretty scary if you were 5 years old. Seriously, the whole "There is no Dana, only Zuul!" scared the sh*t out of me. Anyway, back to the cartoons.  It was about these 4 guys in New York City fixing the paranormal problem. It may not be cool for you but it was one of the best we got back then.

Thank God a 3rd movie is in the works! Christmas 2012 is the release date! Huzzah!

The other cartoon in which I was a bigger fan of was TMNT. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Again, 4 main guys, err, Turtles. The story begins when a kid drops his 4 pet turtles in the New York City sewer. Living in the sewers was a Ninja Master named Splinter. One day, a secret mutagen simply called "the ooze" fell in the sewer. The turtles mutated into "humans" while Splinter mutated into a Rat.

These Turtles, Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michaelangelo were trained by Splinter to be, yep, you guessed it, NINJAS! They were to fight the threat that was THE FOOT CLAN lead by the Evil Shredder! The bad guy was a friend of Splinter a long time ago... TMNT started as a comic book but was nowhere near the cartoon counterpart. The comic was dark while the cartoon was funny. That was the time when the word DUDE came in since the teenage turtles always had all sorts of expressions like RADICAL, AWESOME, and of course, COWABUNGA! This was also the time I loved Pizza a lot! Why? Because the turtles ate it and I thought I'd be a Ninja by eating pizza. Hahaha!

The Turtles were huge! It was a  phoenomenon! They had cartoons, 3 live action movies in the nineties and 1 animated movie back in 2007. In 2009, they celebrated their 25th anniversary! I had the Toys when I was a kid. Donatello was my favorite of the bunch. Too bad I never got the Turtle Blimp! I did get the Turtle Van though. :) They don't make toys like they used to too... :(

Back then, when cartoons were shown on Friday nights, you pretend outside to be Ghostbusters or Ninja Turtles. That was when kids went out of the house and played. Now, most are stuck in front of the TV or a computer...

Times have changed but I think the kid in me will never go away.

Mayohan (2010)

Mayohan (Dan Villegas, 2010)

English Title: Maytime

I remember that afternoon where I first fell in love. This love is not the same as the shallow crushes I had for my dainty homeroom advisor in kindergarten or Alice Dixon from Okay Ka Fairy Ko (You're Ok, My Fairy, 1987-1991) in grade school. This love was, at least during those times, very real especially in terms that she was tangible and the possibility of me being in love with her morphing into us being in love with each other is good. I was just a year past puberty, a dweeb from high school, when I met her. I can recall the details very clearly. She glided down from the third floor of the mall to where she greeted me with the most distinct of smiles. It was a lovely smile, a smile that delicately curves to shape like a tired crescent moon, wrinkling a bit a very special portion of the cheek that is just below her perfectly shaped eyes. She was, at that moment where logic took a backseat and infatuation had me completely intoxicated, a vision of perfection.

Looking back with the jaded and cynical eyes that were developed out of all those loveless years I had to live through, it’s most certain that that afternoon isn’t very special at all. She probably didn’t glide down from the third floor to where I was, but just rode the escalator like everybody else does. Her smile that afternoon most probably wasn’t lovely in that unique way because it held a special meaning, although I insist that her smile up to now has always been lovely, but was just one of the many smiles she would show to new acquaintances. Basically, it was my heart, novice in the enchantments of romantic elation, made everything more than perfect when they were hardly that.

Dan Villegas’s Mayohan (Maytime) tells the story of Nino (Elijah Castillo), a city boy who retreats to the provincial town of Infanta for summer with his aunt. There, he meets a Lilibeth (Lovi Poe), a pretty lass who is soliciting money from the town’s male populace for the mayohan, a unique ball that happens in the end of the month of May where the town’s single ladies are lined up for the men who will invite them for a night of dancing and other merriment. Nino, whose parents were killed in a vehicular accident that left him with a noticeable limp, aside from adjusting to the laidback lifestyle the province which usually involves daily strolls and nightly prayer sessions has to adjust to his own coming-of-age. Enamored by Lilibeth, Nino readies himself for the ball where he, along with the rest of the town’s male populace, would have to compete for a chance at igniting a summer romance.

Sta. Ana’s screenplay shines in its simplicity. Unhampered by lofty aspirations and ambitions of social relevance, Sta. Ana manufactures a plot that pits the admirably innocent admiration of a first-time lover to his loved one with the tainted reputation of that loved one. Lilibeth, reputed to have the same propensity for indiscretions as her mother who became the town mayor’s part-time fling, is depicted by Sta. Ana and Villegas with dual intentions: as the object of desire for young Nino and as a troubled individual, unmindful of and carefree with her morals and on the verge of escape. Notwithstanding the seeming incompatibility of the two natures of Lilibeth that Villegas and Sta. Ana explore, the film still upholds her stature as an indisputable beauty, a prize. Villegas, who started out as a cinematographer with the propensity for romanticism in the way he lights, frames and color-grades his visuals, provides Lilibeth an immaculate sheen, a luster that is equal to the allure of the town’s seaside vistas and other remote locations. It is impossible not to sympathize or at least understand Nino’s persistent and undaunted infatuation.

Thus, Mayohan, much more than a love story between a post-pubescent city boy and a provincial beauty is a portrait of un-jaded love as only youth and lack of worldly experience can produce. Despite its trappings of mining an obscure festivity for cinematic color, the film speaks a universal language, one that has been spoken or is being spoken by anybody who has treaded the path of blindly loving against all odds and against all warnings. It is a love that seems more suited in that stage of our lives where we haven’t found ourselves weary and wary of reality and the cynicism it inflicts. Mayohan, in all its unabashed and unaffected depictions of stubborn youth and his stubborn love, is a lovely little film that knows its limitations, works within them, and as a result, charms more than I thought it could.

(Cross-published in Twitch.)

My Creation - Part 43

I got some back dated bento post. Here is another bento lunch and snack bento which i prepared two weeks ago.



rice coated with floss and top with bear and love shape cheese, fish finger, meat with soy sauce, grapes and strawberries.


Fearles's bento


Cruz's bento

Weekend if possible, i will try to prepare some afternoon snack for them to munch. Just in case we have late dinner, at least they won't starve.


bread with cheese , grapes and some candies. :)

My Boys's Book 2 performance

This time, they are doing fine, can play the song with both hands. Only singing part, still very weak. Fearles got stage fright, i can't hear his singing, you can see him keep rubbing his hands, after he finish his performance, he told me, " i am very scare!" :(

On the other hand, despite Cruz was not feeling well that day, he still do the singing and song playing. He sing quite loud, compare to last year, he is doing good this time. :)

Side note: Elina, if you're reading this, this is the tee you bought for the boys from Health Freak mummy's online store. Thanks so much!!!

JMC - Book 2 "mini graduation"

It's almost a year, my boys learn their music at JMC Yamaha. Beginning of this year, they finish their book 1, they had a mini party and yesterday they finish their book 2 and usually they will have a "mini graduation" , they need to play a song and sing a song in front of everyone, then there will be a mini party.

This time, daddy get very excited compare to book 1. Week before i told him that, the boys going to perform. The boys need to practise the song they want to sing and play the song they need to play. Hubs very participate this time, he practise the singing together with the boys. I on the CD let three of them sing together and i read them the lyrics. LOL!

Tuesday, day before the performing, while i am working, receive msn message from hub asking, "is the kids singing tonight? 8pm right? I go for cycling at 5pm+, but will be at 7pm+." I had a good laugh and told him "not today but tomorrow!!!" That is how excited he is. On the night itself, out of sudden, Cruz not feeling well, vomit whole night, drink water also vomit, drama till morning around 4.30, he had two rounds purging, he feel better after that, but very weak. Went to bed to sleep around 5am, and so do i.



Bring him to see doctor in the morning and i let him rest at home. Finish work, back home, he still look weak, i told him, he rest at home, and tonight i bring Fearles go to the music class, he said he want to go. Feed him some porridge, he don't have much appetite, just had few spoons, then off we went for the music class.





this is what i prepare for the mini party, beside than the bread sandwiches, i brought some packet drinks and some vitagen for the kids, and some "junk food" hahahhahah.

During last mini party i also do the sandwiches, this round i add some nori on the bread and make it look a bit nicer?

Dinasour, bear, rabbit and some mini flower bread. :)

Before they start the performance, they practise a while. This time i can see more parents coming to support their kids, beside than just the mummies and some of the younger sibling also there to support their kor kor and jie jie. :) It look crowded in the class.

digging gold before the performance? hahahhahahhahaha

After the performance, it is party time!! Every mummies bring some food to the party. We have pizza, jellies, cake, drinks, party packs for the kids and sanwiches. Cruz having three pieces of pizza!!! OMG!!! After pizza, he and Fearles start play with their friends, everyone running around, play with the balloons, having a fun time and immediately Cruz just recover from there. hahhahahahhahhahah


foods......

look at the wording on the cake - Farewell Book 2 and Welcome Book 3 . LOL!!!

Kids with their piano teacher - Ms Yap. Did you notice, boys are more than girls?
There are only two girls in the class and 6 boys!!

Stay tune for the video in next post. :)