THE TWILIGHT EXPERIMENT

A bevy of girls screaming endlessly in the cinema is something I’d never forget. The screams were meant for Robert Pattinson, which permeated the dark cool air of the cinema every time his face would fill the screen. My ears were ringing when I got out of the cinema, as I berated myself for watching [...]

MY NATIONALITY ON MY TAB

I was used to seeing the table number, the name of the cashier or waiter, the date and other pertinent details on receipts wherever I dined out. In the hotels I stayed in, it’d be my name on the receipt and my name would also appear on the reservation book. And so the feeling went [...]

DID YOU GET IT?

That someone liked my comment on someone’s Facebook status was cause for disconcertion.  It wasn’t the fact that I didn’t know the fellow who pressed the like button (he’s a friend of a friend though) as much as my comment was not something to “like”. It wasn’t like a wish for Robert Pattinson to materialise [...]

HAND FROM ABOVE

From afar, I was hard pressed to accept that it was a gigantic hand “hanging” in midair but upon closer look, it certainly was. The trip to the National Harbor in Prince George’s County in Maryland yielded quite an interesting sight as my cousins and I made our way from the parking lot to the [...]

HURRICANE WATCHING

MARYLAND: It’s a Saturday night but it’s no ordinary Saturday. Everyone’s waiting for the same visitor, but her arrival is not something that everyone is looking forward to. Glued to the news, we listen to when Hurricane Irene’s appearance in Maryland would materialise. But her presence is already felt. Tracking her on yahoo, she has [...]

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

The signs I stumbled upon made me suspend judgment for a while and think in terms of current context. I’ve heard of dog spas and beauty centers, but this one was a pleasant surprise. The canine community of Sonoma, California, certainly has their schedule cut out for them at this day camp. I wonder what [...]

FINAL RENDEZVOUS

The journey to Hogwarts was coming to a close after 10 years of reading the novels and watching the films, but the final rendezvous was stalled with the release of the conclusion of The Deathly Hallows a year after the first part of the film. Now, there was no more hiding from the fact that [...]

IS THAT YOUR NAME?

What’s really in a name? Is it really the name that matters or the connotations surrounding the name that carries more weight? Consider the name Casey Anthony, which under ordinary circumstances means nothing except perhaps for her family and her friends. But after the trial that acquitted her of murder in the death of her [...]

D & D

I will say it again – finding good food around Bekasi is like engaging in a never-ending treasure hunt, and which is why a trip to Jakarta is a necessity when one wants a repast of, say, Japanese, Chinese or Western food. This time the hunt was on for d & d or dim sum [...]

CENDOL STOP

We missed the turn off the expressway Starbucks so I just waved at Starbucks when we passed by. No biggie for the rest of the passengers on the car who were not big Starbucks fans. Their pit stop was just coming ahead and there was no way they were missing it. On a scorching day, [...]