Loot of the Week!

Whoa! I bought a hardbound illustrated film script of Neil Gaiman's Mirrormask. The original price is 1,750 bucks and I got mine for only 500 bucks... woohooo!!!

Loot of the week!

Wupey! I got myself a copy of Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner for a measly amount of forty bucks..... ahuh!!! that's like more than 10 times cheaper than the usual price found at the bookstores in the metropolis. As usual I found my copy at my all time favorite store.... Booksale!

I don't mind if the book's cover is torn and have lots of creases, stain, and what not.... I think of it as something like the book have acquired some character :-) Well almost half of my books came from Booksale so they all have some value added character in them.... Sometimes I even have books with notations at the pages and it tells something about the previous owner. I also look at it sometimes in a quirky romantic angle..... like..... you know..... because most of the time these books have changed owners, been from other countries, have either gathered dust for so many years or have been read by so many people and in the end the book and I found each other's company....harharhar....

Anyways..... I am excited and can't wait to start reading this book... I hope I wont cry a river....like how Butch described the effect of this book to him... well... will see....

Haircut, Orson Scott Card, and Halo Halo

Today I was supposed to go to my former school to process the release of my TOR. I would like to know how many units have been officially credited to me a year before my graduation in nursing school. I have heard that some students learned belatedly that they are not qualified to graduate because of some uncredited units. So you can't blame me if I am scared as hell and really need to have my academic credits evaluated immediately. Unfortunately I was only able to escape from home around 2pm and was stuck in traffic for almost an hour via McArthur Highway. I decided to scrap my plan and transfer ride and take a bus ride to SM city via NLEX.

While in the bus I just decided to go and have a haircut at SM city so as not to waste my whole afternoon. The moment I got off the bus I immediately proceeded to David's to have a haircut. Unfortunately the salon was full of clients waiting for their turn to have a haircut. I was quite disappointed that my plans for the day seems to be going awry. The front desk clerk of the salon told me that I have to wait for an hour and a half for my turn. I decided not to list my name and just headed to The Block and go to Fully Booked.

I usually go to Fully Booked to torture myself...... mainly because the books on display are really nice but very expensive and I feel bad because I can't afford to buy even one book. So why not go there today when it seems that Murphy's Law is bound to happen for me today anyway. Why not cap it off with another depressing situation. So there I find myself scanning books one by one, shelves after shelves. I saw Cormac Mc Carthy's The Road... hmmmmm... I muttered... would like to read that one... Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss... yeah that too!.... Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner.... uh huh this one too.... Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys and Fragile Things.... by the time I reached Terry Pratchett's.... I find myself smiling and daydreaming. I am imagining that I am a security guard assigned in graveyard shift where everynight the book store is mine and I have all the books to myself.

After almost half an hour of lingering in an almost transcendental imaginations I decided to exit the store. But lo and behold I noticed a table filled with books on sale... checked the titles and the price... nah cant afford them either. However, I noticed that there were books underneath the table and piled on the floor. Went down on my knees and alas found three Orson Scott Card books and they are on 50% discount sale and I can afford them! Woohoo! The three books are part of a five volume "Homecoming" series. I bought volumes 1, 3 and 4, The Memory of Earth, The Ships of Earth, and Earthfall. I just have to scour all the Booksale store for the two other volumes, The Call of Earth and Earthbound.

Feeling somewhat victorious of somekind I decided to go to the new mall across The Block. Buoyed up by my precious purchase I felt like walking on sunshine even though it was already around 6pm. I have not yet fully toured Trinoma even though I have been to this mall thrice. It was a big surprise for me to find a David's salon right smack near the 2nd level entrance across the Block. To make things even better there were hardly any customers inside.

I was immediately ushered by an assistant to have my hair washed and shampooed. After washing my hair the stylist asked me if I would like to take advantage of their 50% discount on hair treatments. She advised me to have an oil treatment since my hair is pretty dry and coarse. It will only cost me 275 pesos.... by the way, the stylist is extremely pretty and her name is Beverly. So without hesitation I acquised with her suggestion. Her assistant...a very tall guy treated my hair with some paste like substance and then he wrapped my hair with a plastic wrap. He then started massaging me.... I am not quite sure with what he is doing... but it felt like he is squeezing me too much... my proud and mighty biceps and triceps seems to be losing the muscle tone I have tried to achieve with years and years of sweating it out at the gym. After 20 minutes or so... my hair was once again washed and the pretty stylist starts cutting my hair. After 30 minutes more I am already sporting a shorter do. By the way the discount is good only until the end of the month!

By time I left the salon I am already famish hence I immediately looked for a cheap place to dine. During our previous visit in Trinoma my brother saw a Razon's booth at the foodcourt and it has a long line of customers. I also remember my friend jtt telling me that we should try driving to Pampanga and try the pancit luglog and halo halo at Razon's. She swears with how good the food albeit the cheap price. I decided however to have the tapsilog and halo halo instead of the more famous pancit luglog and halo halo because I am extremely hungry. Anyways, the food was great the halo halo was extremely creamy.I will definitely go back there and try the other variations of sinangag at itlog, sisig, etc.. Big thanks to Trinoma... we dont have to drive all the way to Pampanga to dine at Razon's. Wooohoo! I had a great day despite the slight detours ;-)

Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite authors. Although I've read only four of his books so far..... American Gods, Coraline, Neverwhere, and Stardust and I am still hoping and praying to have a copy of Anansi Boys and Fragile Things..... I am nevertheless quite impressed with the diverse texture of his work. Last July 2005 Mr. Gaiman was in the Philippines hence I decided not to miss the opportunity of meeting a world renowned author in flesh :-) Although this video clip is almost 2 years old and the quality is quite poor because I only used my cellphone to capture the whole thing I still decided to share it with you folks and enjoy a glimpse of Neil's visit here in the Philippines.

The Lovely Bones

I've read this book about 2 years ago upon the prodding of my niece PG. I was then a bit hesitant about reading this book because I am afraid that it will just make me feel bad and sappy after reading it. But despite my apprehensions I still ended up reading this book. And boy am I so glad I did. This book gave me a new perspective with revenge and justice. You see I am the kind of person whose sense of closure with a conflict is by getting even.... an eye for an eye. I've always believed that true justice also means equality in everything..... But sometimes as I learned with this book vicious things happen to allow us to know our strengths, weaknesses...... that by mourning we shed not only tears.... but also our naïveté.... we learn to live with life's big punches.... learn to be more accepting.... Just read this book guys if you haven't yet.

The reason why I have this sudden surge of excitement after 2 years is because of the buzz I heard from E news. They said that filming of the book adaptation is already on-going and one of my all time favorite director Peter Jackson is on the helm! Wooohoooo... read the book first before the adaptation reached the silver screen.

Loot of the Month

Last March 10 while I was aimlessly wandering at the mall I ended up as usual browsing at my favorite store BOOK SALE. I can say without missing a heart beat that I care no less about any other store and a mall aint complete if they have no BOOK SALE shop. My latest foray did not disappoint me because it yielded me a copy of Kurt Vonnegut's "GALAPAGOS" for a measly 70 pesos. The cover and spine of the book was in mint condition! Woohoo.

After a week my dear niece bought me a copy of the great Elie Wiesel's "NIGHT" for only 40 bucks also from BOOK SALE in North Edsa. I am looking forward to my very short summer respite... as I willl utilze the most of it reading books