Went to Makati Med armed with my healthcard to have my ears checked, thinking they were the culprit for my vertigo. The ENT doctor said my eardrums were clean. I had a hearing exam (pure tone audiometry and PTA with speech, similar to the one I had last year), and the results came and my hearing was fine. So I guess the diagnosis is still BPPV. He handed me a brochure with information about vertigo and how to deal with it (see above photo), and instructed me to keep taking Serc as long as I was “symptomatic” and avoid salty and spicy food.
Crap. I thought I had ear blockage of some sort and the doctor could make my vertigo magically disappear. Oh well. At least my ears are okay.
That night Jaykie and I watched the first two episodes of Justified. I’ll be sure to follow this. I didn’t know it was based on an Elmore Leonard story! Have a read:
Oh, on Monday night Jaykie dropped by work to pick me up. We had dinner at Mom & Tina‘s before we went to his condo to watch the season finale of Game of Thrones.
mango kani salad (half-order)fettucine with smoked salmon and capersfish 'n ricechocolate fudge cupcake, lemon meringue squarejaykeh!uncontrollable laughter and the Huge Upper Arm of Doom
Sniff. No more Game of Thrones. I don’t know how long viewers had to wait for Season 2.
I have reviewed all four books (so far) of A Song of Ice and Fire series, but I haven’t reviewed the TV adaptation. I only have this to say: it’s good TV. Good production values, rich scenic detail, spot-on casting.
8:58 am. Kagigising ko lang. May mga ginupit sa ‘king buhok na ipinatong sa kama ko at pinalibutan ng mga butil ng asin. Hindi magbibiro ng ganito sila Niko.
Matagal-tagal na rin noong huli akong magbasa ng libro ni Bob Ong (isang manunulat na hanggang ngayon ay nananatili pa ring misteryoso: walang pangalan, walang picture, walang interview). Tuwang-tuwa ako sa una niyang akda, ABNKKBSNPLAko?! Non-fiction daw, pero dahil nga hindi pa rin siya nagpapakilala, maaaring kathang-isip lang rin lahat iyon. Alam ko nabasa ko rin yung (ilang) mga sumunod, pero wala silang naging impact sa akin. Siguro natawa rin ako, na-touch, etc. pero mukhang hindi sila kasing-memorable noong unang libro, na walang kaere-ere at gusto lamang mag-kwento at hindi mangaral. Sabi ng kapatid ko maganda rin daw ang McArthur, pero wala akong ganang basahin yun, maski na may kopya sa bahay.
Noong inanunsyo na horror o katatakutan ang susunod na libro ni Bob Ong, nagka-interes ako, pero nagduda rin. Kaya ba niya? Matatakot ba ako? Baka kung anong ka-cliche-han na naman ito, baka mangangaral lang tungkol sa Diyos at Simbahan.
Wala akong nabasang rebyu ng Ang Mga Kaibigan ni Mama Susan kahit saan, print man or online. Kaya’t nagulat ako nang makita ko na diary-style pala ang nobela, at naka-set sa 1998-99. Binata ang narrator, college student. Kuhang-kuha naman ni Bob Ong ang paraan ng pagsasalita (at pagsulat marahil) ng isang lalaki sa ganoong age range. Gaya nga ng sabi ko sa Facebook, nakakatakot na, dahil ka-boses niya ang mga kapatid kong lalaki. Haha.
Subtle lang ang katatakutan sa simula: nanaginip siya ng babaeng itim, nagigising ng alas-tres ng umaga, naririnig ang phone na nagri-ring pero pagsagot niya, wala namang tao sa kabilang linya. Mababaon ang katatakutan sa simula ng kwento sa mga kalokohan. Nagsusulat siya ng rap lyrics, nagrereklamo sa pag-ibig, sa mga utos ng tiyahin niya, sa kabagutan, sa kawalan ng pera. Maganda ang pacing. Kahit nung nakarating na siya sa bahay ni Lola (Mama Susan), hindi pa rin nagmamadali si Bob Ong. Unti-unti, hanggang sa paglabas ng mga sikreto, hindi ka na bibitiwan ng nobela.
Buo naman ang karakter ng bidang lalaki. Masasabi ko iyon dahil nagawa kong maawa sa kanya, lalo na nung pumatak na ang Marso 1999 sa kwento at naisip niyang sem-break na! Naalala niya ang mga kaibigan niya at mga pinsan na naiwan sa siyudad. Ang bababaw ng mga problema nila! At nagsimula siyang lumuha at magsisi.
– My poem, “Sadness: A Catalogue“, is now live on the Philippines Free Press website. Comments are welcome, and feel free to share the link.
– April Yap’s book, Stressed in the City, can now be downloaded for free! Visit her. Thanks to Luis K. for sharing it on Twitter.
I have also just found out that I am in the initial shortlist (50 poets, 50 poems) for inclusion in Under the Storm: An Anthology of Contemporary Philippine Poetry.
We’ve received over 290 submissions for the anthology. Our sincerest thanks to everyone who has submitted. We are choosing 113 poems from 113 of the poets who’ve submitted. This is in commemoration of our 113 years of Independence, of being Filipinos, of being Filipino writers.
4th .MOV International Film, Music, & Literature Festival
I love this weekend. Busy and fun and eventful and full of food.
Thursday night/Friday. Watched the latest episode of Game of Thrones and became very worried the series (if you haven’t read the book, do not highlight – spoiler!)would end up not killing Ned until Season 2 (if at all) just because he’s Sean fucking Bean. It is starting to look that way and – Bleh. I hope I am wrong.
Jaykie made a glass of iced milk with honey. Yum! Here’s the recipe from the Game of Thrones-inspired The Inn at the Crossroads.
Ingredients:
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons honey, more to taste
pinch of saffron and/or cinnamon (optional)
Pour milk into a saucepan and warm on low heat. Do not scald the milk! When steam begins to rise from the surface of the milk, add the honey to the pot and stir until combined. Place sweetened milk in fridge to cool off.
In a glass, place either cubes or small chunks of ice (crushed ice will dissolve too quickly). Pour the sweetened milk over the ice, sprinkle with spices, and serve.
We woke up early the next day for Jaykie’s enlistment at UP. I waited with him, reading Zoo City, thinking I’d be able to finish the book before he could pay. But he was done before lunch. Lunch at ROC. I wanted to drop by the UP Press Bookstore at Balay Kalinaw, and found out that it was no longer at Balay Kalinaw. Effort na pumunta sa UP Press so tambay lang nang onti, then off to Makati to try Bonchon.
Bonchon at Ayala Triangle Gardens.
We were there at around 4 p.m. I think? And were already hungry enough to eat rice again haha! (We did a lot of walking.)
I’ve heard/read horror stories about this particular Bonchon branch, but since it was merienda time, there were fewer people, service was fast, and the servers were polite.
chops with rice and iced tea, plus a side of kimchi coleslaw
It was good! Chicken was crispy and spicy-sweet, and the warm meal went very well with the cold kimchi coleslaw.
I treated Jaykie to gelato from Caramia. Try the pistachio.
pistachio and new york cheesecake
We went back home, finished the book, and watched the second season of Damages.
Saturday
We left late afternoon, had dinner, then explored the bookstores for books! I got three.
Elmer (NBS, P250), Ang Mga Kaibigan ni Mama Susan (Bibliarch, P150), Pacific Rims (NBS, P399)
Jaykie got a Steven Erikson book. (Pictured below.)
Not so much a bookswap as a how’s-Kat-doing-these-days meeting, haha! Which of course led to other quality kwento. First loves, coming out of the closet (not applicable to me, maniwala kayo!), mediums, ghost stories, the afterlife. And oh, books. Of course.
With bookswap newbie, Ice! (Who apparently speed-read a Lionel Shriver book while the girls and I were talking – kaloka!)
Another little girl wanders into the Book Nook ™!
We stayed till 1 a.m. Till next time, girls!
*
I just arranged my books this morning. I have serious book space issues now, it’s not even funny.
In Lauren Beukes’s alternate world, a person gets paired with an animal (mashavi) after he or she commits murder, and is also endowed with a corresponding magical ability. While the animals, or familiars, represent a person’s soul in Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass, in the brilliantly imagined Zoo City, the animals (according to one theory) are the external manifestations of a person’s guilt or sin – a bright scarlet letter that breathes and feeds and lives. Imagine being an “animalled” in this world. You will find it hard to look for a job or a decent place to live. You cannot deny your crime. One look at you, and people will know that you have blood on your hands.
Zinzi December has a Sloth. Her magical ability is finding lost things. Her crime is killing her brother. She runs a 419 scam. You know those scams involving Nigerian princes? She writes those letters. One day, she is offered a considerable sum to find a missing person.
The novel has so many unique ideas but doesn’t turn the story into a massive info dump. That’s the beauty of it. It paints the world of Zoo City one stroke at a time, and talks about important things like war and poverty and faith without preaching. And its a damn good mystery, too. A genuine page-turner.
Elmer
Another page-turner, with a premise that I would have laughed at if it were developed by a less talented mind.
One day, in the late 70s, all of the chickens of the world Awaken. The chickens in jampacked coops, the chickens on their way to slaughter – all of them wake up and become conscious, become aware of who they are and what the humans have done to them. Some of them fight back. Some, like Elmer, are rescued by a sympathetic human and goes into hiding. The story is told through Elmer’s diary, handed over to his son Jake after his death.
You know what Elmer reminded me of? Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH.
The novel relates the plight of a widowed field mouse, Mrs. Frisby, who seeks the aid of a group of former laboratory rats in rescuing her home from destruction by a farmer’s plow, and of the history of the rats’ escape from the laboratory and development of a literate and technological society.
Oh my God. Wished I still had a copy. Loved that novel to bits.
And loved this comic, too. There are flaws (here’s Adam David’s excellent review; beware – spoilers) but as an inquiry into civil rights and what it means to be human, its power cannot be denied. Gerry Alanguilan’s chicken story is worthy of praise.
Sylvia Plath’s only novel is said to be (semi-)autobiographical, and with The Bell Jar written in the first person it was just near-impossible for me to detach Sylvia Plath from protagonist Esther Greenwood. In the novel, Esther, an A-student from Boston in her twenties, wins an editorship at a fashion magazine in New York in the summer of 1953. The story begins harmlessly, with comic episodes, but soon turns to darker alleys, as Esther comes home from the summer and questions her worth. She cannot see anything significant or interesting in her future, and tries to find ways to kill herself.
Sylvia Plath committed suicide and died at the age of 30, shortly after the publication of her novel. (Her husband Ted Hughes’ second wife also committed suicide, and also took her young daughter’s life.) Forty-six years later, Sylvia and Ted’s son, Nicholas Hughes, who was only a baby when his mother put her head in the oven in the next room, hanged himself in 2009.
Esther survives, but she’s only an episode in Sylvia Plath’s life. Who knows what she might have done, the moment she stepped off the page?
I don’t want to talk too much about this excellent Jonathan Carroll novel because I want you to experience it (if ever you went ahead and read it – you should, you know) the way I experienced it. I didn’t read the blurb, and had no idea what the book was about, so essentially I threw myself into the first chapter empty of expectation. And lo, how I floundered. The novel has the most interesting chapter titles (“Tunica Molesta”, “Knee-Deep in Sunday Suits”) and the first chapter is called, “Simon’s House of Lipstick”. In it, Simon Haden gives a bus tour to a group of odd creatures (including a bag of caramels, who is bored) with a little man named Broximon, wondering how he can pay his bills. I read, interested, but the chapter was getting weirder and I didn’t know what was happening. Then I knew, and oh, what sweet bliss as I understood, and I kept on reading.
More than the characters and the incredible plot, I was amazed by Carroll’s pacing. How he leaves you with questions and gives you the answers, slowly, like a striptease. It made reading the story a wonderful experience. It was as if I were given a slice of the best chocolate cake and given all the time in the world to savor it.
Eliza Victoria 
