Sneak Peek

Stephenie Meyer reveals a spoiler on Breaking Dawn here.

I’m ecstatic that Edward and Bella actually do get married. BUT I’m nervous about the wedding taking place early on in the book so that means LOTS will happen after.

Also, the last line on the article – “Breaking Dawn is expected to go down as the biggest book of the summer. Everybody wins. Even Team Jacob”

Even Team Jacob wins?? How??

Oh God please don’t separate Edward and Bella!

Pet Peeve of the day

People who stand by the bus driver, successfully blocking everyone else who gets on the bus.

Edward & Bella

Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart will be playing the roles of Edward Cullen and Isabella Swan in the upcoming Twilight Movie.

What do you guys think? Do they look anything like you imagined Edward and Bella would look like?

On Growing Up.

Whenever I feel stressed, sad, tired or heartbroken, I can’t help but think of how much easier everything seemed to me when I was younger. The world… and life in general was much simpler.

Being a child gives you some form of freedom that adults don’t typically enjoy. When you make mistakes it is perceived as innocence and immaturity… you can be excused for not knowing any better. You lose this privilege little by little as you grow older. The more you know, more is also expected from you. As an adult, people are less sympathetic. It is easy to be criticized as being immature for your age, stupid, ignorant or inconsiderate. There seems to be a standard for the age you are in and when you fall short of that standard, everyone seems to notice. Someone always has something to say.

I find that our responsibilities and priorities also change as we grow older. As children, we enjoy having fewer responsibilities. But that also meant fewer privileges. While our responsibilities mainly revolved around school work and household chores which were relatively easy to accomplish, we didn’t get much in return for it aside from good grades and our parents’ approval. Some enjoyed an allowance for their hard work but most of us (if not all of us) relied on our parents to provide us with our daily needs. We relied on them to buy as the things we wanted. We even relied on our parents to make decisions for us such as which school we were going to attend and what we were going to bring to school for lunch.

Life gets more complicated the older we get. Suddenly, things aren’t as black and white as they used to be. We worry about our careers, the bills we have to pay, our relationships with other people, and the decisions we have to make. Experience tells us to be wary of others, to be careful about what we say and do because we know that there will always be a consequence to every decision. As we grow, we learn what it is like to strive for something and be disappointed, to wear our heart on our sleeve and get hurt, to realize that there are things beyond our control. We learn our limits, that there are things in life we cannot explain, and that people will sometimes do things we cannot always understand. We strive to have the things we want knowing full well that life has a tendency to throw a few surprises here and there.

Yes, life is so much more complicated now than when I was a child. But it also means so much more to me. I can appreciate the good times because I know what it is like to go through the bad. I know I that I am bound to go through some hiccups, but I also know that things have a way of working out. I’ve met a number of wonderful people and I’ve had some pretty amazing experiences. There are things I know now that I didn’t know before and I am still learning everyday. I’ve had my share of surprises but I’m learning to roll with it. I have had my heart broken but I’ve also had a lot of love. I’ve been disappointed many times but I’ve also had my share of accomplishments. I’ve shed a lot of tears but I’ve also had a lot of laughter.

What I’m trying to say is this: Life gets more complicated as we grow older… but with it comes a lot of good.

Ang Tagal Pa!

Found the following Twilight Trailers on Yahoo and it's making me anxious to see the movie!

Silly me.

I am in-love with Edward Cullen.

Not the actor that plays him… but Edward himself.

I know… it’s childish.

But give me a break here… I love the books, love the characters, love the story and…

I cannot wait for the movie!

Washrooms in mind.

Going inside a public washroom is very similar to going inside a haunted house. You never know what to expect, except that there is a huge possibility you might find yourself face-to-face with something horrible, frightening and downright nasty. If you’re really lucky, you might even find yourself in a predicament so bad that it is forever etched in your memories.

I, for one, try to avoid having to use public washrooms unless I really, really need to go. The problem is that most establishments do not clean their washrooms as well or as regularly as they should. Clean public washrooms are a rarity... so rare that when I do find one, I actually end up remembering the establishment. If the washroom isn’t only clean but also smells nice and has good quality paper towels, it gets 2 thumbs up from me. The even nicer ones that have sofas, fancy lighting and big mirrors are just pure heaven. I am actually tempted to take a picture and show the world that Lo! There is such a thing as washroom nirvana.

How often do you find yourself walking into a public washroom with a grim expression? Barely surviving the stench, you proceed to open the doors to each stall, looking for one that’s clean enough for you to do the deed and go. If the gods are on your side, you find a clean one behind the first door you try. If you aren’t one of the blessed, you end up opening each door to be greeted with some nasty variety until you have almost reached the last stall and are seriously contemplating just peeing on the floor. This painstaking ordeal is made worse when you are dying to go.

Using the public washroom can also make you feel like a circus performer. Having to relieve yourself while holding your clothes up (lest, God forbid, it touches the floor), balancing your coat/bag in one hand (if the stall you’re in doesn’t have a hook to hold these), grabbing tissue in the midst of all of this, and changing a pad (if it’s that time of the month) is quite impressive.

I don’t know how nasty men’s washrooms are compared to women’s washrooms but as a woman, I am surprised at how bad our washrooms can be. Toilet paper everywhere, brown logs on the toilet, red jelly on the floor... the nastiness just goes on and on and on. Using the washroom and not having the decency to clean up after should merit some form of criminal punishment. It’s just wrong and inconsiderate to the next person using it. I can only imagine what other people’s washrooms in their own homes look like if they can’t even be bothered to flush the toilet. Establishments should also be more conscious about maintaining their washrooms. We’re giving you business and the least you could do is provide us a nice, clean place to relieve ourselves.

The funny part? Even though we all despise using nasty public washrooms, when you need to go, you just go.

E - Jeepneys.

(Image courtesy of GreenPeace)

Nice… the Philippines now has E-Jeepneys which run on electric power. Apparently, it is charged merely by plugging into an electric socket. The article says the first E-jeepneys were first introduced last year but only in private, gated communities since it hadn’t been approved by the Department of Transportation. Now that they’ve gained approval from the said department, three have been launched for a pilot run in Makati City and that passengers would be able to ride them for free during the first week. I wonder how much it costs to manufacture these E-jeepneys because if the manufacturing cost is too high, the selling price could end up being high enough to discourage people from purchasing.

I think the E-jeepneys are a step towards the right direction and I do hope the Philippines finds ways to implement more of them in the future. It would do wonders in decreasing pollution and will be great for the environment.

***Read more about this interesting venture here.

Dinner in the Sky, anyone?

Was doing some article reading on Yahoo.com and found out that Dinner in the Sky is now also available in Canada?! I didn't know/notice it at all and it's supposedly on Dundas Square in downtown Toronto.

I don't know if I can do it! I'm scared shitless of heights and I think I'd be freaking out so much that I'd begin hyperventilating on the way up. Forget eating! I'm already worried about breathing normally while I'm up there, strapped to a seat that would probably be swaying back and forth with the wind... the last thing I'd be thinking about is food.

It says it costs about $20,000/day to hire the rig.. lotsa money don't you think? But hey, it's one heck of an experience right?

It almost seems like a thrill ride in an amusement park except that you get to eat gourmet food while on it. I can't seem to shake the thought of the chord breaking and me falling helplessly with food flying everywhere..tsk tsk.

What kind of insurance do you have in place?
Dinner in the Sky operates with a $10 million liability insurance.

I don't think I'd survive the fall to benefit from the liability insurance. No thanks!

Love the design of their website though... very cool.

Lilacs, Japanese Food and A Furry, Little Creature

Beautiful Lilacs along the street

Yummy Japanese Dinner: California Rolls, Shrimp Tempura and Beef Teriyaki

Super cute groundhog in the lawn across the street from our office (there's actually 2 of them but the other's hiding)

The above are photos I took using my camera phone (hence the reason for them being a bit blurred). The lilacs came out in full bloom in May and they were practically every where in Steve's neighborhood. I could smell them from the car and I couldn't help but admire how beautiful these flowers were. There was another flower that bloomed in May and it was white and pinkish in color but we didn't know what it was called and I didn't get a chance to take some pictures but they were also really beautiful. Weird though that both these flowers only bloomed briefly.

I took a photo of our Japanese dinner at Momiji along Bloor Street West because the food presentation was "a work of art" (in Steve's own words). The many times I've ordered from that place, I always had it to go and this was the first time we actually sat and ate in the restaurant. The place is great, the food is amazing, service is excellent and I can't help but keep wanting to eat there even though it can be pretty expensive (the dinner above cost us around $40+ and we only had 3 dishes). Oh, and when you order Coca-Cola, they serve it in those traditional, old style 8ml Coke bottles!

The third photo is that of the Groundhog that we see frolicking on the lawn across the street from our office almost daily now. I think it hid during the winter but since it's been hot out, it's spending more time outside. We see 2 of them sometimes and we suspect they live in the bushes in front of the office across from us. In the photo, the groundhog is actually chewing on a McDonald's French Fry carton. Let me tell you that they are extremely adorable furry little creatures and I can't help but stare at them from the window in Steve's office. I once asked Steve if you keep them as pets but he said no, they're not pet animals. They look so scared all the time though... always on the look out for anything approaching them and they run and hide so fast when they feel threatened.

3-day work week.

I’m back at work after a 4-day long weekend. Since yesterday was Canada day and an official Canadian Holiday, our CEO had decided to give us Monday off as well so we could all enjoy a long weekend. We were all surprised by his sudden, out-of-the-blue kindness as he’s typically not so generous especially when it comes to taking time off work. I was so glad about it that I contemplated giving him a big thank you while passing by him last week… but since he’s a bit temperamental, I thought it might be best to leave him be and not say anything… he might take it back if I utter a word about it.

It really does make a difference… having a few days off work. My colleagues and I were just talking about it this morning and we all feel well-rested and just really relaxed. We’re all happy campers! It’s like having a mini-vacation except my vacation days didn’t get deducted and I still got paid.

I really wish we had more long weekends like this… I think we'd all be happier employees!