Mich’s Journeys

aliw!! click here to view the video.

Doesn’t this just make you smile?

… Ichi’s business trip to Indonesia pushed thru end of November, he was there for one week. The bad thing though was for most of the trip he suffered from diarrhea.

… We were over at R & Tin’s place last weekend to visit with them and see their cutie baby A. E was very happy playing with K (K & J’s lovely daughter) and the christmas tree which made us decide to finally buy a tree on the way home. E is very happy with his mamama (aka christmas tree), he even knows how to turn on the christmas lights. He even wants to open his gifts, I just hope that I can make him wait till christmas eve.

… Still have to complete our christmas shopping, there are still a few inaanaks to buy some gifts for and of course, Ichi and E. Will also be having a quiet christmas eve dinner at home with a few friends probably.

… On the video front, I thoroughly enjoyed watching My Girl and It Started With A Kiss (ISWAK), definitely recommended. I’m eagerly awaiting for the sequel of ISWAK which is said to be aired next year. I also watched Love Contract also starring Ariel Lin who is also the female lead of ISWAK, I liked the series for the most part but really hated the ending.

.. Want to watch : Silence, The Hospital, Love Is All Around, Super Rookie, Tokyo Juliet, Cloud Stairway (Cloud Stairs). Any more recommendations?

This is my third “first” in a month! This is the first time I have watched a live television show. I did not even thought of doing this back home. On the last day of August 2006, I went with my friend Paolo to Caldecott Hill, MediaCorp TV Theatre to watch….Singapore Idol!!! Actually, Paolo pleaded with me as he can’t find anybody to watch the show with him and being a good friend that I am, I just couldn’t refuse. Peace bro! We actually got the tickets from my cousin Anton. It was given to him by one of his clients who is a sponsor of the show, that was his excuse when he flashed me the tickets.

We left the office early and went directly to the studio without having dinner just to see the last 5 idol hopefuls. Our tickets were balcony seats. The first thing we noticed was the size of the stage. If Michael Jackson moonwalked there for more than 5 seconds, he would have already fallen off. It looked bigger on TV. The second thing was that it felt like we are watching the Nickelodeon’s Kids Choice Awards! Most of the people watching were kids! 12 to 15 year olds. I mean for the first time, I really felt old. I did not even feel like taking out my glasses even if I can’t see clearly from up there. Then there was somebody on stage working the crowds. So this is what they do to make you feel like there’s a party going on out there whenever it comes on after commercials.

30 minutes before live broadcast … a studio staff asked us to go down as there were still a lot of available seats below. We hurried down to get good seats so I wouldn’t need to use my glasses anymore. When we got down, we noticed that the crowd (or the kids) were already grouped into sections according to who their favorite idol is. We went to the middle which was Hady’s section. Not bad. Fortunately, it was not Jasmine’s section as it might look uncool if ever some friend saw us on TV. It was really kid-noisy now us the MC stepped it up a notch.

15 minutes before live broadcast … somebody was signalling that there were still 5 available seats nearer to the stage. We went for them and got seats just behind the main camera. Paolo even got one of the Hady posters being distributed around.

5 minutes before live broadcast … out comes Gurmit and Daniel and they helped worked the kids more.

2 minutes to live broadcast … now the idols are out waving and signing autographs. You need to shout to talk to the person beside you.

3..2..1..the idol theme music plays to signal the start of the show. Everybody goes crazy, especially at Paul’s section. Almost every kid at that section dressed and looked like him. Unbelievable! The idols performed a number on stage…or lipsynched on stage! Man, I thought this was supposed to be an Idol show. Why aren’t they performing live?! To sound better?! It says a lot about the show’s confidence in it’s idol hopefuls. After the number, we noticed that Gurmit was sitting himself to our left with a cameraman! This might be it! Our few seconds of fame! The show went to commercial. Daniel worked the crowd as the show is coming back on. 3..2..1..Bam! There was Gurmit talking on the big screen above us about something but I was not listening anymore as just behind him were Paolo and me waving on TV! Our 15 seconds of fame with my cellphone vibrating with Michelle’s text message about seeing us on TV. Our (Michelle and myself) Amazing Race appearance 3 years ago was better but that was just for about 2 seconds, this was around 15 seconds! Cool!!!

Well, there goes my third first for the month of August. That’s certified jologs for you lah. Right or not? By the way, the Joakim guy got voted out and almost everybody in his section was like crying. That capped the night for us…icing on the cake…lah.

(AFP/Getty Images)

A lot of people were stunned at the news of Steve Irwin’s death by a stingray the other day and I was one of them. I couldn’t believe the news when Ichi first told me so I quickly surfed the web and there was the news plastered all over various websites. Ichi and I are both fans, we liked to watch his shows on cable. What I liked about him was his enthusiasm and passion for wildlife and every bit of it was really captured on cam.

Thank you for sharing with us your passion.

It’s been a while since I did marathons of any series. Before I got pregnant I would watch into the wee hours of the morning dvds of a favorite show or korean/taiwan series. When you've got the set, sometimes you just can't help but watch the whole season or the series in one or two sittings. Over the past three weeks, I've managed to finish four series of about 18-20 episodes each. These four series were all given to me by my mom and brother which they brought over when the visited us a few months back. Hmm .. all the four series have love triangles or even squares but I enjoyed watching them. Check them out.

My Name is Kim Sam Soon


Cast : Kim Sun-Ah (Kim Sam-Soon), Hyun Bin (Hyun Jin-heon), Jung Ryeo Won (Yoo Hee-jin), Daniel Henney (Dr. Henry Kim)
http://www.imbc.com/broad/tv/drama/samsoon/index.html, http://content.mbc.co.kr/e_mbc/drama.asp?idx=144

Wedding


Cast : Jang Na-ra (Lee Sena), Ryu Si Won (Han Seung-woo), Myung Se Bin (Shin Yoon-soo), Lee Hyun Woo (Suh Jin-hee)
http://www.kbs.co.kr/drama/wedding2005/index.html/
http://contents.kbs.co.kr/program/program_dview.php?contentsUid=65&category=0&isBroadcast=Y

Only You


Cast: Han Chae Young (Cha Eun Jae), Jo Hyun Jae (Han Yi-Joon), Hong Soo Hyun (Ji Soo-yeon), Lee Chun Hee ( Jung Hyun-sung) http://tv.sbs.co.kr/onlyyou
http://www.koreanwiz.org/at/drama-onlyyou.html

Le Robe De Mariage Des Cieux


Cast: Cyndi Wang Xin Lin (Tao Ai Qing), Li Wei Lian (Lu Zi Hao/Aaron Lu), Ming Dao (Chen Hai Nuo), Guan Ying (Katrina), Wang Zhi Yu (Sun Xiang Zhen)

Taylor Hicks is the new american idol! This season Taylor and Chris Daughtry were my favorites so even though I was disappointed with Chris' exit I'm really happy that Taylor won.

Here in Singapore, their idol franchise - Singapore Idol - started last week with the auditions episode and will continue this week with the theatre ep where they will whittle down the contestants from 100 to the top 28 finalists.

And finally, the Phillipines has its own idol franchise!! Fast track auditions are now being held in different cities in the Philippines, while the actual auditions are slated to start in June. Sino kaya ang magiging first Philippine idol? The show will start airing on ABC5 in July.

I loooove Grey's Anatomy! This show just gets better and better. I just watched the 2-hr season finale (for season 2) and I can't wait for the next season to start. Apart from the really good episodes, it really doesn't hurt that you have mcdreamy (Patrick Dempsey), burke (Isaiah Washington), denny (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and mcvet (Chris O'Donnell). I'm a fan of spoilers, I like knowing something about the episode that's going to air but going spolier free (as Shonda Rimes the creator/executive producer doesn't believe in spoilers) has been a real treat.

Check out the show's blogs — Grey Matter (by the writers of the show), The Emerald City Bar (blog of Joe the bartender in Grey's Anatomy) & The Nurse's Station (blog of Nurse Debbie).