Farewell 2013!

La la la la last entry for the year! How am I supposed to do this?

Tomorrow I'll be going somewhere fiiinnnneee and there I'll be spending the last hours of 2013 reflecting on the year that has been while planning for the year that is to come. I'm arming myself with a calculator, some notebooks, my guitar, my iPad, and some Big Apple Donuts. I'm actually looking forward to that time of contemplation.

I won't be posting much melancholy thoughts here. But if you want to check out my 2013 wrap up, you can head over to my other blog - I've three more entries to post today, tomorrow, and finally on the first of Jan.

2013 has been good. 2014 will be even better.

Cheers, everyone!

Mari

The Snowman

Saw this last night on "big screen" at the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra with ate Di Ponce. The animation was projected on screen while the orchestra perform the music live. It was so, so nice to have the music be performed live. It was awesome being able to watch everything from a box seat, too. (Hurray for winning two free tickets from a feedback raffle draw!) It was our second time at the Dewan Philharmonics. I wish I could post photos but doing any sort of recording there isn't allowed. I think we all should, if we can, watch an orchestra live at least once in our lives. It's an entirely different experience seeing how people passionate, dedicated, and disciplined in music play together to create one big, beautiful sound. After playing "The Snowman", the orchestra played a sample from "The Nutcracker" and some good ol' Christmas tunes (with a children's choir singing along). I'm starting to feel the Christmas cheer, over here.

Almost a Year

And... it's almost been a year already! Time flies so fast, doesn't it?

Well, a lot has happened this 2013. This blog testifies to that. And to give a round up of the memorable things that occurred this year, let me give this year's top ten entries (well, as of 5 December 2013 anyway):

Ten: On Elephants and TiGer Shows. I'm guessing it's the post-ICPM fever that brought the people here. Sawadee ka!!! Hihi. True, the Bangkok experience was a memorable one. All those TiGer shows and monkey business(es). Yeah.

Nine: Ang Bayan Ko. Philippines, my Philippines. I wrote this blog post shortly after Yolanda happened. It was my way of trying to process what happened but until now, I am still processing. My heart still goes out for my country. Let's keep on declaring God's peace, His love, His covering, and His justice over my beautiful nation.

Eight: The Historical City of Melaka. Hmmm. I wonder what brought people here? Interesting. This was a throwback post from my 2013 travels, but I'm glad people stumbled upon it anyway. One day I'd like to visit Melaka for some artistic and literary exploits. That would be fun!

Seven: KTV in Malaysia. Ahh, I wannna go karaoke again! It was such a long time ago! As I'm writing this, I've been singing along to some boy band tunes being played in this coffee shop. YES. BOY BAND tunes. From the good ol' 90s and early 2000s. I can't believe I still know 90% of the songs by heart. So... who wants to go KTV-ing with me?

Six: S&S Reruns: Change. A rerun makes it to the list. Hmmm. Something that I wrote last 2011 about transition and change? And about bit bit kad rabbits, too.

Five: How to get an OEC from NAIA3. Truth be told, though it's number five in this blog's list, it perpetually holds the top spot in my other blog's. I originally wrote it there and just reposted it here, because I wanted to focus that one on my literary endeavors. People keep heading over there though. And I've found that entry being referenced/cited by some Pinoy forums. Oh well. I'm glad to be of help to my fellow OFWs.  

Four: Petronas Twin Towers. The Petronas Twin Towers are in! Of course, lah. I'd be pretty surprised if they weren't. 

Three: Maginhawa Street Food Trip Part 1: Blacksoup Cafe + Artspace. Maginhawa Street is a pretty special place for me. Those who know me well know why. :) I'm this entry about Blacksoup Cafe + Artspace made it to the third spot. 

Two: On Voting. Oddly enough, this year's Malaysian elections left me inspired and pushed me to exercise my voting privilege for the first time. Philippine politics still continue to make everyone's blood boil, though. Especially with the unfolding of the Pork Barrel Scam. And with the drama (or lack thereof) in the recent senate hearings.

One: Maginhawa Street Food Trip Part 2: The Icecreamist. Lots of people looking for The Icecreamist here, in blogosphere. Welcome and mabuhay to you all! Anyone out there willing to buy me them smores which we never got to taste? No takers (or should I say "givers")? No? None at all? Oh well. Thanks for dropping by anyway. Hope you enjoyed the dragon pictures and hope you were able to enjoy the sweet treats at Maginhawa, too! 

And so that's this year's Top 10. Not so sure if I could still come up with a list next year, though. Blogger records everything by the "now", by days, weeks, months, and then by "all time" views... so how? We'll see where my web dev skills will take me.

Here's to 2013! Looking forward for more entries this 2014!

Not so long ago.

I Love Manglish

Manglish, as in Malaysian English. We got these postcards-slash-coupons from Nando's the other day. I almost let my friend take them home but it's a good thing he didn't. He was visiting from the Philippines - if you read on, you'll see why it won't be of any use to him there.

And it's not just because the whole thing is written in this weird crazy mix of languages:

Transcription with some rough translation:

"Guess what. Nando's is giving out these Just Say Lah postcards, and this one made me think of you! Let me belanja [treat/libre] you 2 pcs Chicken Wings and a bottomles Coca-Cola [oh, yum, let's go!], sure syiok [huh?]. Plus can claim at any Nando's restaurant one. [Try reading that again]. You just show them this postcard, okay liao [oh, so that's how you spell liao]. Eh, don't forget to bring me also lah. [Bring you to Nando's or bring you something from Nando's?]"

"You also got something to say to someone izzit? [Have you? Got you? Errr... Okay, is it.] Go to nandos.com.my/justsaylah and see lah. Lazy ke? Then just scan this code:"

Can you now understand everything, izzit?