Missing the Shanghai Winter...

They said it's officially the first week of Spring, but the week I spent in Shanghai did not feel like spring at all with 43 degF weather. And do I miss it!!

The minute we got out of the airport yesterday, the 90+ degF Manila heat enveloped me. I suddenly had colds from the change of weather. And did not want to leave the comfort of my aircondition at home to do any chore but being away, I just had to do go sweat it out at the grocery.

I remembered that long walk we did at East Nanjing Road in the middle of the day and though it was tiring, I was not soaked in sweat. I couldn't imagine doing that here even under the shades of buildings of Ayala Avenue, the main business street in Makati where I work.

Well as the song goes "back to life, back to reality"...

Note: Posting photo links soon!

Hello again China!

I am back in China and loving it!

Arrived from Manila, Friday night, the 20th and flying back on the 28th. As usual, home in China for the next few days would be my sister Teng's home at the Emerald in Pudong, Shanghai.

This time, my playmate for life Butch is with me and travel buddy Ochie who I missed in 2008 travels, are with me.

We are having a great time and have done a lot of things in the past couple of days. Saturday was jampacked with activities and sightseeing. We went to the Shanghai Ocean Aquarium, the Oriental Pearl Tower and watched the ERA Intersection of Time show at the Shanghai Circus.

Then on Sunday, we went on a road trip to HuangZhou, another province just 2 hours away from Shanghai Pudong area. We went up the Leifeng Pagoda then rented bikes and enjoyed the sights around West Lake.

I will be blogging about my experiences and posting photo links as soon as I get back.

Playmates

It's a staple in many of my past Christmas wishlists.. part of my shopping list wherever I am in the world.. part of my family and friends' shopping list wherever they are in the planet.. unsuccessful..

Until I stumbled upon these playmates at an obsure branch of National Bookstore (http://www.nationalbookstore.com.ph/), I thought no one had the imagination to produce purple bookends.

I loved that the bookends are a pair of boy and girl images. My friend Ochie found me bookends in the past but they are on the lavander/mauve shade. This one is screaming purple and my birdcage need new ones to hold on to the growing collection of dvds and cds that my real life playmate and I have collected.

As one of James Patterson's (http://www.jamespatterson.com/) psychotic book character said .. "happy, happy, joy, joy.."

ARGH!!!!!!!!

It's been sooo long since I last posted anything.

I was mad at myself for watching too much of Jerry Yan's (F4) new drama Starlit last Sunday that I missed the only day that I can post something.

I was having a horrible week - long hours at work, saying goodbye to people, atm fraud victim, sleep deprived...

Thank god I found something to make me laugh as the weekend draws near and the thought of getting my hands on a vodka bottle is making me drool, shake and most probably forget to study for my Nihonggo lessons.

What are playmates for right? MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Happy Friday the 13th!!!!

Takeshi Kaneshiro..Perhaps Love?

I was catching up on the movies that are in my "to watch" bin. Decided to check out this movie that my sister brought me back from Shanghai.

Perhaps Love is a 2005 movie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perhaps_Love) which reminded me of Baz Luhrman's Moulin Rouge. Before anything else I was amazed at the quality of a blue ray dvd. I've been watching too much online streaming video that I forgot how good a super clear dvd is to watch.

And since the dvd was so clear, I was amazed at how gorgeous looking Takeshi Kaneshiro is..still. Takeshi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takeshi_Kaneshiro) is not new to me. I have been a fan of his for quite some time now and have seen many of his works in Japan, Hongkong and China.

I loved his Japan tv dramas God Give Me More Time, Golden Bowl and Love 2000. I watched his Hongkong movies Anna Magdalena and Tempting Hearts. I loved his movie Turn Left, Turn Right. I even have a documentary of his travel in Scandinavia (?) or was it the North Pole? And more forgetable is this american movie he made called Too Tired To Die with Marisa Tomei.

I knew Takeshi is talented and versatile but one talent of his I kept forgetting is that he can actually sing and that was my revelation in Perhaps Love. Since the story within a story plot of the movie is a musical, Takeshi did a lot of singing in this movie.

Takeshi did this movie when he was 32 years old and I just could not help making screen captures of his beautiful face. I remember seeing a photo book of Takeshi in Shanghai last September and I wonder if the book is still there when I go back. I hope I have enough money to buy it. Otherwise his huge Armani billboards inside Shanghai Pudong airport will have to do for now.