watch Pacquiao-Hatton fight here!

ROUND 1: Despite Ricky Hatton's aggressiveness (he was all over Pacman), it was Manny Pacquiao who drew the first blood! The Hitman also hit the ring floor several times after being caught by Pacman's punches. The round ended with Hatton being saved by the bell from Pacquiao's further onslaught.

ROUND 2: Ricky Hatton was able to hit Manny Pacquiao a few times. It appears he was redeeming himself. Unfortunately, Pacman had other plans and was connecting left and right punches as well. The final blow was dealt with 20 seconds left in the round. Pacman's south paw connected to Hatton's jaw and he was out cold instantly -- way before he hit the floor.

the "REAL" slumdog millionaire

Have you watched the award-winning movie yet? If not, you should! It's not really of heavy material but you can take a lot of lessons from it. The lesson I took away from Slumdog Millionaire was "All you need to learn in your life, you'll learn from your EXPERIENCES" =) And lest I'll be misunderstood, I'm making it clear that learning through formal education is also essential. Your experiences in a structured school will be important when you'll work in a structured work environment later. So please, no dropping out of school kids! Hehe! =p

Anyway, if you're one of the moviegoers who saw Slumdog Millionaire and wondered how the uneducated slum kids shown there learned how to speak English, wonder not anymore! It turned out they learned from tourists and more remarkably, they also speak other languages like French, German, Arabic, Nihonggo, etc, etc. You don't believe me? Watch the two videos of a slum kid below. The first one was filmed when he was a kid and the second one was when he was already a teen (and learned newer languages!). Be prepared to be AMAZED by Ravi!

Most purists would say the multi-lingual kid is not really multi-lingual. After all, Ravi *only* knew some words of the languages he spoke -- words that he needs to sell his peacock fans to tourists of different races. But let me ask you, do you know how to introduce yourself in the languages he spoke above? Or lets try something simpler, what's "HELP" in as many languages as you can? Hmm, hard huh? That's why I say hats off to this kid (and his "colleagues") for being very resourceful despite the bad circumstances he's under. And just so you all know, Ravi is my inspiration why I'm studying Nihonggo right now ^_^ God bless India's slum kids!

Chris Brown vs Rihanna

What's the real score?? I have been sympathetic to Rihanna's plight ever since the domestic abuse mess came to light. But her continued silence is really putting me of. I mean, what would all the girls looking up to her think? That it's okay to be abused and just keep quiet about it?? Argghhh!! Of course, until now, we're not 100% sure whether Rihanna was really the girl Chris Brown hit or that he really abused a woman physically. Still, I really hate their silence =( If it's not them, they could just give statement. If it's really Rihanna, condemn domestic abuse and say that she could not share more because of legalities.

It's more than a week after the incident and in Hollywood, a week of silence is eternity! At least Chris Brown has finally spoken out and apologized (Rihanna's "reaction" to it above). Though his apology is generalized and he did not really admit that he committed domestic abuse (who would? LOL). I hope Rihanna will speak out soon. What she's doing is really harmful to what the rights movement for women and children have achieved in the recent years. Also, I'm hating all the other Hollywood stars right now. All I've been hearing from them is that they're friends with both Chris and Rihanna, that he's a good boy, that they're "feeling" for Rihanna -- but there's 0% about domestic abuse! =(

Maybe all this is just much ado about nothing. I'm really hoping for that than think people are covering up a domestic abuse incident coz the involved are celebrities. THAT'S SO 1800s!! Ggrrr!

UPDATE: Here's Rihanna's battered face courtesy of TMZ.com -- sad huh? =(

Rihanna's "statement" about the incident with Chris Brown.

this is why I don't drive

Women Drivers in Action!

Gawd, I wanna apologize to all the brilliant women drivers out there but this video is just darn so funny that I have to post it! Plus I can totally relate-- I'm such a klutz and would probably do one or all of the stupid things done by women drivers in the said video. Teehee! ;-) Guess my student permit won't be needed anymore. It's really bye-bye driving for me..

honeymoon chronicles: makati / laguna

WARNING: VERY LONG, RAMBLING POST AHEAD! ^_^

Our wedding was last October 8 and our first night as husband and wife was spent in the HUGE bridal suite of Grand Regal Hotel. The next day, we were off to Manila -- Day 1 of our honeymoon! ^_^ It was our first plane ride together, our first time to Manila together, our first time to be out of Mindanao.. Despite being steady for nearly 9 years (we were exactly 8 years, 11 months and 3 weeks on our wedding day), Labsie and I never really traveled out of Davao or had fun trips like most couples these days do. Mostly it was due to work (I had 24 hours duty until a year ago), lack of money (we were earnestly saving for our wedding!), and the fact that our parents won't allow us to travel (yet) -- yup, despite us being mid-20 somethings already. HAY BUHAY! Anyhoo, we were superrr excited with our honeymoon trip and so, even though we were still in Davao Airport and the plane, we were taking pictures left and right. LOL! We had dinner at a Suka't Sili branch inside the boarding area and spent our pre-boarding time surfing the internet for FREE!

Labsie started his vacation leave October 6 (2 days before our wedding) and came back to work October 20. We had about 11 days of honeymoon and we divided it to Makati / Greater Manila Area sightseeing and to Northern Palawan dream vacation. For trips this long, it is expected that you'll spend much. But, since we had a condo in Makati's Central Business District, we saved a lot on accommodation and transportation (everything was reachable by foot or cheap PUJ rides). However, from NAIA 2, we immediately 'threw away' P440 for a fixed rate airport taxi (the safest, my parents say) to take us to Makati. Usually, the airport to Makati CBD taxi fare is just below P200 but we wanted to be *really* safe and thus parted grudgingly with the P440 *sniff* By 9pm, we arrived at the condo and rested immediately -- we were still tired from the wedding bruhaha and we had a big day the next day. Day 1, hence, ended unceremoniously. Hehe!

Day 2: I woke up kinda early to cook breakfast (Vigan longganisa and white sardines omelette) and to watch CNN (Labsie hates news channels so I watch them when he's asleep or busy). We were to meet our suki eBay seller of Dragonlance books at 10am near Pacific Star Building to pickup our latest book purchase. Labsie and I are DL addicts and so far we have collected nearly 75 Dragonlance books =) It was raining that day so we were kinda stressed while waiting for the seller. After getting the book, we went to Glorietta for our shuttle service to Enchanted Kingdom. The last time I went there was around 10 years ago (!!!) with my family and for Labsie, it was his first time. Since it was raining, there were talks that EK might close (they do when there's 30 minutes of continuous heavy rain) while we were there. But heck, we wanted to take our chance! Our honeymoon was planned down to the last hour so we just can't cancel trips and come back when we'll have time (no time!!) o_O

Before leaving for Enchanted Kingdom (do buy their advance passes, we saved P400 for ride-all-you-can passes + two-way shuttle rides), we had lunch at North Park first. It was just beside the shuttle service so there's no fear we'll be left behind, hehe! We had Lechon Macau over Fried Rice (see photo below) and King Dao Spareribs. The Lechon Macau was so crispy and flavorful! Much like Lechon Kawali but with Chinese herbs and spices. The servings were HUGE and sooo yummy! And the price was reasonable too! =) And the best thing? North Park delivers in Metro Manila! NEAT huh?? Anyway, the EK shuttle left past 12nn (should be 1130am but we waited for other guests) and we were happy that we shared the ride with Davaoenos and hearing Bisaya banter all around ^_^ Since it was raining, we thought there'd be much less people in EK --> we'll have the rides to ourselves!! But, we were wrong.

Upon arriving, we were mashed by hordes of hormone-raging high school teens having their field trip! I counted at least 5 different high schools there! o_O And there were grade school kids too! We were the only 'adults' there and the kids were calling us Ate and Kuya, wahehe! It was really fun hearing school talks, riding the adrenaline-rush rides with pa-macho effect male teens (I was so damn scared of the Jungle LogJam and Anchor's Away [video at the end of the post] while Labsie trembled in riding the very high Wheel of Fate where you can see the entire EK grounds [see photo below].. And no, we didn't ride the Space Shuttle, we're cowards! Hehe!), eating nachos, Domino's Pizza (yummy!!) and other junkfood while walking around, playing the arcade games (we had 164 tickets!! which we exchanged for a pink cellphone holder and red steel keychain), watching special Rialto and 4D shows, buying Enchanted Kingdom souvenirs, etc, etc. And the best part, since it was raining, there was no hot afternoon sun and nobody minded our wet clothes from riding the LogJam and Rio Grande Rapids ^_^

By 630pm, we left Enchanted Kingdom and waited for the shuttle service. There was a bit of drama as the other guests arrived 1 hour late (again!) and the driver was very much angry with them. Thank God there wasn't much traffic going back to Makati (I guess the rush hour is over by 8pm) and we were able to meetup with Labsie's friends, Goju and Kuya Anton, wet clothes and all in Glorietta's McDonalds. Too bad I forgot to take pictures with them! Maybe next time.. =) After our dinner (we had hot choco [wet clothes + aircon shuttle and mall = hypothermia!] and forgettable fastfood), Goju and Kuya Anton taught us a new way to reach our condo by foot. We used Makati's very clean underpasses and walkways that impressed us very much -- there were no beggars, loiterers and trash! WOW!! Too bad we forgot to take pictures of it too -- we were very tired and still cold this time.. And here ends our Day 2. And I shall end this post now too coz it's too long already, hehe! Actually, this post is not really for blog readers, it's for reliving our memories later on.. But, thanks for stopping by anyway! ^_^

ANCHORS AWAY ride in Enchanted Kingdom

P.S. All the photos here are taken with my Sony Ericsson k800i phone =)