'Wawa in Wawa

What a way to cap off a year. En route to Punta Fuego with my folks, my car's timing belt decides to call it quits and snaps in the middle of Wawa Pier. Haaaaasle. Stress. I kept on thinking how this sort of setback would cost me the lead if I was a contestant in Amazing Race (anything to keep me from exploding in frustration). Long story short, I ended up riding in my car which was mounted on top of the towing truck, which would then be travelling all the way back to Manila. So much for my end of the year tan. I quickly realized the futility in being pissed the whole way and imagined I was on top of a Metro Manila Filmfest float. I even waved to a few pedestrians.

Arrived at the talyer at 10:30pm where the idiot towing guy scrapes my car while it was being lowered to the ground (at this point, you're too tired to get pissed. You just laugh in a staggered, demented way). Then had my legs swarmed on by dozens of mosquitos celebrating New Year's Eve dinner. What a day.I hope this isn't an omen to the kind of year I'll be having.

And A Partridge In A Pear Tree

Merry Christmas to all you strangers out there who read my blog but never post a comment or say hi. Pervs.

Been a bleary-eyed week for me. Went to Punta Fuego with Mel and some of our frisbee friends and spent the day playing disc, the night getting wasted, and the next day waking up early to avoid getting dealt the dreaded pentel pen monobrow. The victim this time around was John Joe:



Afterwards Mel and I visited our friend Abi's place in Tali and damn, it was a beach house straight out of MTV Cribs. Huge white house overlooking a killer sunset view, infinity pool, even an underground cave! I felt like I was in a rap video.



Christmas was again a blur of food, festivities, and family pics with blinking Santa hats. And speaking of pics I decided to give Mel's folks a series of Lozano Children Portraits as a present:



Also took photos of our canine food model wannabe George, our lovable dog whose breed remains a mystery. Isn't he cute? And no, he's not pregnant.



I also survived everyone's near-violent suggestions to watch The Incredibles ("CARLO! Ohmigoooood, you HAVE to watch IT!!!"- while shaking me vigorously) and went to a theater to see what the hype was all about. The Incredibles kicks Shrek 2's ass and deserves to win Best Animated Feature at next year's Oscars.

A quick gripe about Shrek 2- I really don't understand how this movie managed to end up as the highest grossing film of 2005. It's humour is too current (who's going to laugh at the Sir Justin poster ten years from now?), and the only laugh out loud moments are whenever Puss N' Boots is onscreen and the Pinocchio gags. And the song and dance finale set to Ricky Martin's Livin La Vida Loca is just lazy. I guess with all the millions they paid to Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, and Cameron Diaz they couldn't afford to hire a decent songwriter.

So yeah, The Incredibles gets my vote. It reminded me of Alan Moore's Watchmen, on more humourous scale of course.

To officially end my sloth phase I took in the Lakers-Heat game on RPN 9 (I find it cool that RPN has been using the same Voiceover Guy forever. Back when I was a kid, this Voice would introduce Harry Gasser on Newswatch! I think he's the same Voice Guy who does the "Hope. The luxury cigarette." voiceovers).

The game truly lived up to the hype. Kobe going for 42, but Shaq and the Heat getting the win. My favorite moment was at tipoff when they uneasily greeted each other minus the eye contact.

So yeah, Merry Christmas everyone! Somebody speed the holidays up so I can get back to work already!

Sin City

Finally, the Sin City trailer is online!

Looks goooood. I'm the biggest Frank Miller fan and I'm glad Robert Rodriguez had the balls to do an adaptation. From the looks of it, they've stuck to the gritty black and white (with a few hints of colour) look of the comic book, which is a good thing. And take a look at the posters. Wouldn't you want to wallpaper your bedroom with these?



Looking forward to this as much as Episode 3 and Charlie and The Chocolate Factory for next year.

Back Home

Finally back in Manila. After a dramatic scene in Sydney airport involving a lost ticket and my famed absent-mindedness (ticket turned out to be hidden in my wallet), I made it just before Yoyong hit and was able to partake in my once-a-year ritual of wearing a suit for my cousin Bacchus' wedding in Tagaytay. Congratulations cuz!

Here I am with my sisters, my folks, and the unfairly tall guy in the barong is the groom:


Feels good to be back home but I can't deny feeling a slight sense of displacement. First of all, it's weird to not be working at all. If you're a workaholic like me, lying in bed watching pirated DVDs is a luxury which stales quickly. I feel like I should be doing something, anything, just to keep my brain cells working. And watching Dodgeball at home just doesn't quite do the trick.

It's been fun catching up with old friends though. Been playing frisbee again and getting my out of shape ass humbled by people whose ankles I used to break in the past. I'm giving myself a month to get back into my former sporty self. It'll be tough, considering I seem to have taken my Aussie beer-drinking habit home with me.

Things I am enjoying right now:

1) Cable TV. NBA basketball all day and night! Coming from a rugby obsessed nation, it's bliss.
2) Local food. Although I still haven't had tinolang manok. I wonder whose house i can invade for that?
3) "DVDs" from Makati Cinema Square. Heheh.
4) Seeing people I know all over TV and billboards, magazine covers, etc. Fame becomes them, I must say.
5) Local movie trailers. Is it just me, or are local flicks getting (or at the very least, looking) better?
6) My "office." Or as Mel puts it, my "cave." Beats working with my setup back in Sydney.

Things which depress me:

1) How the prices of everything seem to have gone up. Toll. Fuel. Fast Food. A beggar even looked at me insultedly when I
gave him a 5-peso coin. Whu???
2) Traffic. But then again, what else is new.
3) The logging issue. Hello. It took you people just now to figure out that logging is bad?
4) My slow ass internet connection.

Complaints aside, it's great to be back home. Looking forward to going to Bacolod this January.