MOCKINGJAY PART 1 – Movie review

My daughter and I watched this movie together since her Kuya cannot come with us as he was at church. Tatay did not want to go, too, since he says he would just fall asleep inside the theatre...he just took us to the moviehouse and picked us up afterwards. Well, watching the Hunger Games series has become quite a tradition for my daughter and I. So the moment November rolls in, we both become excited wildly anticipating for the time we would be able to watch the next instalment of the series. We did this for the past two movies - the Hunger Games and Catching Fire and I hope we would be able to do this for more movie bonding moments together.

Mockingjay Part 1 starts where Catching Fire left off, with Katniss Everdeen being rescued from the arena and brought to District 13 together with Gale, her mom and sister Prim. The screen opens with Katniss hiding somewhere in the underground facility as she was having nightmares about her moments in the arena. She is forcibly taken by some men and brought to a hospital/clinic for treatment of post-traumatic stress along with her co-tribute Finnick Odair who she saw in the room next to hers mumbling something about wanting to go back for Peeta and Joanna. He also expressed worries about Annie because they have her too back at the Capitol. He wished they were dead...and that they were too.

Katniss next meets Colonel Boggs, District 13 head of security who would be taking her to President Alma Coin, 13’s leader. On the way, Boggs tells her that their District was bombed to rubble by the Capitol some 75 years ago but their military training taught them how to survive below ground. They built a bunker below the ruins - preparing, training for the day when they can finally come out and fight the Capitol once again, that time, they believe is NOW. Katniss meets President Coin with Plutarch Heavensbee, the former Gamemaster whom the Capitol never realized to be helping the rebels. The President welcomed Katniss to 13 and expressed admiration for her bravery. President Coin explained to Katniss that when she fired her arrow into the arena’s forcefield, she also electrified the nation and fired up the rebellion that caused riots and uprisings to occur in seven districts. 13 wants to keep the rebellion burning since they believe they would not have another opportunity like this to unite the districts and fight the Capitol for another 75 years.

The two try to convince Katniss to become the Mockingjay that would unite all the districts against the Capitol. They want everyone to emulate Katniss and stand up against the mighty Capitol. They plan to shoot a series of propaganda videos to continue to stoke the fires of rebellion and make everyone stand up against their common enemy. But Katniss was still concerned about Peeta’s fate since Plutarch left him behind in the arena and so she refuses to take part. Coin and Plutarch discuss their options to convince Katniss to join their fight. They decide to make it a personal issue for her and allowed her to see how much the Capitol ravaged her district. Coin, however, believes that the games must have destroyed her...but Plutarch believes that her anger can be redirected and she can become the face, their symbol for the revolution.

Katniss is allowed to go to District 12 and she goes with Dale convincing him that she needs to do this, to see for herself what happened to their home. Katniss is brought to tears seeing the destruction wreaked on her district, nothing was left standing, all buildings were burned and were even still smoking at the time she arrived. She steps on a skull which visibly shakes her knowing it may have come from somebody she used to know. She proceeds to the Victor’s village where she and Peeta and Haymitch lives and the houses were relatively untouched. She goes inside their home and picks up a few things she want to bring to 13, including some of Prim’s herbal oils. She sees Buttercup, Prim’s cat and brings her too inside the satchel bag then she sees a single white rose that President Snow had given her last year, still fresh and unwithered.

President Snow prepares to address the nation and decides he doesn’t want to mention the rebellion in his speech as it would legitimize them. Instead, he would call them radicals and highlight the long-standing peace they have had due to their respect for law and order. They said that the system they had long practiced kept them all alive since the Capitol served as the heart of that system. The radicals want to put the entire system in danger and so they must be punished. He ordered that all symbols of the mockingjay shall henceforth be forbidden and anyone who ignores shall be punished with death. He then proceeds to kill off several captured rebels to show Panem that he means business.

Katniss returns to 13 and gives her the cat, telling her to keep it hidden as she only smuggled the cat in. Then, while eating with Dale at the cafeteria, they get a broadcast from the Capitol and sees Peeta being interviewed by Caesar, the Hunger games host. Katniss was obviously glad to see he was alive but he seems to be somehow being misguided or made to believe that Katniss knew all along about the rebellion. At first Peeta denies this but Caesar wants him to think otherwise and was upset that they would think that. Peeta then addresses the rebels and urges them to stop and think what a civil war could mean...that killing/violence is not the answer. The people of 13 were obviously not happy with Peeta’s words and branded him a traitor to their cause. Katniss leaves the cafeteria and talks with Dale, agreeing that there can’t be a ceasefire after everything that Snow has done. Dale tells Katniss that maybe Peeta was just forced to say what he did, maybe even to protect her as he is wont to do.

Katniss dreamt about Peeta being there with her in 13 and Prim sees her awake. She tells Prim her thoughts about wanting so badly to save Peeta but knowing that once she openly joins the rebellion, she may end up killing him instead. Prim tells her how important she is to the rebellion and that she could demand almost anything she wants, even Peeta’s safety. The next day, Katniss meets with President Coin and Plutarch and agrees to ne their Mockingjay but on the condition that the other tribute-prisoners of the Capitol be rescued at the earliest opportunity and pardoned. But Coin disagrees since at 13 they believe in having a fair trial. But Katniss insists it wasn;t their fault being abandoned in the arena and now they are forced to do and say all sorts of things in order to survive. Katniss is determined that the tributes shall be pardoned in front of everyone in 13 or else they will have to find another mockingjay. Her anger convinced Heavensbee that their Mockingjay is definitely back so Coin agrees to her terms, even Katniss’ request that Prim can keep her cat.

Plutarch visits Effie Trinket, obviously annoyed at being made to wear a plain gray overall just like everyone else when she is used to the flamboyant wardrobe of the Capitol. He asks Effie to become part of Katniss’ team because she is someone that Katniss trusts, especially now that she has agreed to be the mockingjay. But Effie thinks that aiding a rebellion is not her cup of tea but Plutarch advises her that the days of the Capitol are over and she could choose to stay locked up inside like a prisoner (though she is obviously not) or she can be the mockingjay’s escort. In the end she agrees as she knew no one else in 13 knows Katniss like she does. That day, Coin addresses the people of District 13 and announces Katniss as the face of the rebellion. In exchange, she also promised to rescue the remaining victors still held hostage in the Capitol and pardon them for their crimes, though this was met with dismay by the people. But, if Katniss fails to fulfil her duties as mockingjay then the deal is off.

Katniss is elated to see Effie and admits that she too was ‘rescued’ and condemned to what she considers a horrible place of ‘jumpsuits’, without coffee and strict rules all the time. She missed her wigs and her outrageous outfits. Effie brings to Katniss some designs that were made by Cinna before he died, if and when Katniss decides to be the mockingjay. His designs emphasized Katniss role as the symbol of the rebellion, fully believing she would someday be their mockingjay. Katniss starts a series of propaganda videos under Plutarch’s direction, but she fails to deliver her lines with enough conviction. Then Haymitch arrives and recommends that Katniss be made to deliver her lines in spontaneous situations and not taught or coached on what to say. He suggests that they put her in the field, under protection and with a crew that can shoot propaganda footage while she is in action.

Beetee, took Katniss to his laboratory where he designed a new set of bow and arrows for her to use complete with color-coded bows (for incendiary or explosives). Before they leave, Katniss sees the weapons stockpile of 13 and wonders why they left the other Districts to fend for themselves. Colonel Boggs argued that they needed to find the right moment to attack and that if they did back then they all would have been annihilated by the Capitol. Katniss gets to meet film crew – Cressida (her director), director’s assistant Messala, cameraman Castor and Pollux, an Avox. Gale joins them as her bodyguard. The team averred that they all came from the Capitol and voluntarily left, for the rebellion, for the Mockingjay.

The team first fly out to District 8 where Katniss visits a hospital full of wounded rebels. The wounded soldiers and their families are obviously surprised by her visit and at the same time delighted that she came. She promised them that she would fight with them...and they all give her the three-fingered salute. But then the Capitol’s cameras identify Katniss which prompts Snow to send in jets to bomb the hospital compound, due to their association with the Mockingjay symbol. Colonel Boggs advised the team to hide in one of the abandoned buildings but Katniss and Gale, seeing that the bombers were targeting the hospital decided to do something and managed to fight off the bombers with her red-tipped bow. Katniss and her group then sees everyone in the hospital dead and she gives her most emotional speech yet urging others to help them stop the Capitol because they would stop at nothing, even bomb innocent civilians it is here that she delivers her famous lines – “Fire is catching...and if we burn, you burn with us!”

The video was shown and the people of District 13 and Coin were quite pleased with the footage telling Katniss that Plutarch’s faith in her was not misplaced. In another district, the workers were entering the woods led by soldiers and one of them sees the Mockingjay symbol on a tree and whistles. The group then started running away from the soldiers and going up the trees but they were shot at by the soldiers. Then bombs planted on the ground go off killing all the soldiers. Gale visits an obviously depressed Katniss with good news that Coin had allowed them to hunt above ground. Katniss sees an elk but she failed to shoot it since it did not want to run away. They find a pretty river and sit to calm themselves but after awhile they receive a message that they must go back to 13.

Inside they witness a live feed of another interview with Peeta being urged by Caesar to condemn Katniss for inciting people to violence. Katniss sees how different Peeta has become, how they seem to have tortured him to say anything they want. Peeta was made to think that Katniss was being forced to support the rebellion so he told her to start thinking for herself...that it was the rebels that made her into something she was not, something that could destroy everything. Peeta further urged her to make the rebels stop the war and even asked if she can still trust the people she works with. Gale and Katniss get into an argument over what Peeta just said since Gale thinks Peeta is a coward and he would never do what he just did. Katniss defended that Peeta was just saying these things to protect himself or maybe even Katniss.

Katniss thinks that Peeta may be unaware of what the Capitol did to his own district and so she decided to visit District 12 and show the world the devastation that the Capitol wreaked. Gale starts talking about what happened to 12 on the night that Katniss fired the arrow that ended the 75th Hunger games. The next day, when Gale saw that the peacekeepers were leaving, he and two others started pulling people from their houses, urging them to go over the fence line but most of them were afraid. He shared that only 915 made it to the fence and they watched in misery as bombers circled back and fired at the main highway. Only 915 made it out alive, out of ten thousand. He knew he could have saved so much more, carried more children but it was just too late to evacuate more. The crew visits Katniss’ old home at the Victor’s Village and inside Katniss and Gale share an intimate moment.

The crew rest near a river and they soon notice a few mockingjay birds flocking towards them and they whistle a tune which the birds imitate. Katniss is asked to sing a song and they film her while singing ‘The Hanging Tree’ and as soon as it was broadcast to the other districts, it was adopted as their protest song. A group of rebels conduct a mission aimed to destroy a large dam near the Capitol so that all power to the Capitol will be cut off. The outage temporarily cut power to even President Snow’s house and severely weakened their defences which enabled Beattie to enter their broadcast system. That night, Peeta gives another message to the rebels and he looks obviously tortured. Just then Beattie was able to enter their system and he airs Katniss footage at District 12. Peeta seem surprised to see Katniss alive but upon the prodding of Ceasar continues on with his message to the rebels but in the end he issues a warning to Katniss and everyone in District 13 that they will be coming to bomb them. But Peeta was silenced and the broadcast interrupted.

President Coin and the others then decide to quickly evacuate to the lower levels where they will be safe from the bombings. Katniss goes down with the others but she can’t seem to find Prim in the shelter so she goes back up to find Prim going back for her cat. Katniss goes back to the upper level and reaches her at the stairs just in time before the shelter locks down. As the bombers start dropping their bombs, Coin decides not to fire back so as not to reveal to the Capitol the extent of their defences. She effectively sealed the District and kept their weaponry hidden so that the Capitol would not know where to target them. While in the bunker, Prim shared to her sister that she had been promoted to work in the hospital as they are training her to be a doctor. Soon the people grow bored just sitting or lying on their bunk beds and decide to play with Buttercup, making it run after the light coming from a flashlight. She soon realized that it was what the Capitol was making Peeta do, to make him follow the light. She shares her realization with Finnick who tells her that she must love Peeta too and that their relationship was not truly an act.

The next morning, Coin made Katniss deliver a statement to Panem that District 13 is alive and suffered no casualties, thanks to Peeta, they were able to have some eight minutes of leeway time before the first bomb dropped. Katniss goes out of 13 to make the shoot and is surprised to see a whole meadow of white roses amid the rubble of the bombing. Katniss knew that the roses were meant for her, as a warning that he would kill all of the people she loved, particularly Peeta. Katniss decides she cannot do this anymore...she realizes that Peeta is being punished because she is the mockingjay and so she stops filming any propaganda for the rebellion as it would lead to Peeta’s demise. Katniss admits to Haymitch that she can’t be the Mockingjay anymore. Haymitch told her that they are now attempting to rescue Peeta and the rest of the tributes since Beetie was able to enter their defences when the power went out. Katniss wants to help but Haymitch tells her that the group of volunteers already left, led by Gale.

Finnick takes Katniss’ place to deliver the message to Panem that District 13 is alive and survived the bombing. Finnick also reveals many of Snow’s dirty secrets – how he was sold/pimped and couldn’t refuse or else someone he loves would be killed. He also revealed that President Snow uses poison to kill off his opponents in order to rise to power. Meanwhile, at the ops center, President Coin with the rest of the leaders, including Katniss and Haymitch see the rescue team enter the Capitol and reach the Tributes Center without being detected by their perimeter defence system, thanks to Beetie. They see the team going thru a laboratory containing several torturing devices. Then, the group reaches Peeta and the tributes but the power is suddenly restored and Beetie can no longer hack their system. Katniss decides that she be used to distract President Snow and eventually he responds. She tries to convince him that she did not really want to be part of neither the games nor the rebellion; she just wants to save her sister and Peeta. Snow did not seem to believe her and instead remarks that it is ‘the things she loves most that destroys us’. He also tells her that he knows that her friends are in the tribute center and then immediately cuts the broadcast off. Katniss bursts out crying fearing that she may lose them both – Gale and Peeta.

Later on, Katniss learns that the rescue team made it back home safely with the tributes. Katniss first sees Joanna Mason, obviously emaciated and tortured then Annie arrives shouting Finnick and they have a tearful reunion. Katniss sees Gale and asks if he was alright and he admits confusion because he knew every radar and weaponry at the Capitol saw them but they flew past them...it seems they were allowed to escape. He thanks Gale and Colonel Boggs and approaches Peeta for the first time. He looks weak and wounded but at the sight of Katniss he immediately springs into action and chokes her to death. It was only when Boggs knocked him unconscious that Katniss managed to survive. Plutarch later explains that what they did to Peeta was called hijacking through psychological torture and fear conditioning using tracker jacker venom. It seems that the Capitol had put in new and different memories for Peeta making him hate Katniss and turning him into the ultimate weapon to kill her. It is Snow’s ultimate revenge on her...though they could try to reverse what they did but it would be difficult. President Coin announces to the people of 13 the successful return of the rescue mission to liberate the tributes. Katniss, in the hospital, sneaks in to peek at Peeta and sees him kept in isolation, strapped to his bed and screaming in agony.

The movie ends here and expectedly this has left many of us hungry for more and wishing that the next movie instalment would come soon! Mockingjay, the book, is undoubtedly quite long but I am just so sad that for more profit the franchise was further split into two! So unfair! Expectedly, too since the setting of the Mockingjay is outside of the games already there was less action in the movie as compared to the first two instalments. Rather, the movie delved in the inner conflict within Katniss – as she struggles to accept becoming the symbol of the revolution in order to save the people she loved. The movie is set underground so most of the film is dark but in moments when the people of the movie do come out, we are greeted by breathtaking and dramatic scenery of the outside world, some parts still untouched while the rest destroyed by Snow. In all, I liked the movie but only just a bit... I hate the fact that the film was cut just when it got to the interesting part (Peeta is back!) and I have to wait 12 whole months to watch how the director interpreted the rest of the Mockingjay book. Ugh! This is just pure and absolute agony!

OUIJA – A MOVIE REVIEW

The movie starts with a young Debbie Galardi and Laine Morris playing with a Ouija board in a flashback, where young Debbie tells Laine the rules of the board, the most important being not to play alone. She also teaches Laine that the eye allows them to see spirits from the other side and when she does try to peer thru the lens, she gets scared seeing her sister, Sarah. Then, in the next scene, an older Debbie is shown playing with the Ouija board alone, saying goodbye to some spirit then she tossed the board into the fireplace. She gets a call from Lanie who invites her to a game but she won’t come so Lanie shows up at her house and asks what was wrong with her and she tells her it was nothing, she just doesn’t want to go out. She admits playing with the Ouija board though, some two weeks ago and she admitted some apprehensions. Lanie dismissed Debbie’s anxiety saying it was just a game and offered to stay in with her. But Debbie refused and promised to see her the next day.

Lanie reluctantly leaves and Debbie goes back inside the house, eats dinner by herself and feels a presence in the house (door opens by itself and stove lights up). She goes up to her bedroom and sees the Ouija board on the bed, untouched. She decides to look into the board’s eye and becomes possessed by an evil spirit and hangs herself. The next day, Lanie, Isabella and her boyfriend Trevor wait at a neighbourhood cafe for Debbie while planning to watch a movie later tonight. Then, Lanie gets an urgent text from her Dad and when she gets home she gets the news that Debbie committed suicide last night. Lanie goes to Debbie’s house to mourn with Debbie’s family and the like the rest of her friends and family, they were filled with questions about her ‘suicide’. Lanie hugs Pete, Debbie’s boyfriend and goes up to Debbie’s room where she sees the Ouija board and was convinced that it may have played a part in her friend’s death.

Lanie talks to Debbie’s mom and they discuss how full of optimism Debbie was for college. She agrees to house-sit for them while they stay at another friend’s house. While Lanie was cleaning up a bit Debbie’s house, her boyfriend Trevor covered up the pool. She hears sounds from Debbie’s room and goes up to investigate and sees the Ouija board again. She decides to enlist Trevor’s help to use the board to contact Debbie and they are later joined by their friend Isabelle, Debbie’s boyfriend, Pete and her sister Sarah. On the first time that they play the board, the group was able to contact a spirit named “D”, whom they believe was Debbie. The board spells out ‘Hi Friend’ but Lanie at first thinks that it was Sarah pushing the planchette. Lanie starts to ask Debbie some questions and tell her they miss her then suddenly the power goes out.

The group scatter out into the darkness with Lanie and Trevor going to the kitchen to find the stove burner turned on...it’s a creepy scene while they move stealthily inside the darkened house and Pete approaches a mirror and gets pushed by ‘someone’ from behind, shattering the glass. The friends leave the house and as Trevor drops off Lanie at her house, he worried that she brought the board home and instead advised her to move on, anyway she was already able to say her goodbyes (if it was indeed Debbie they were talking to)

As days passed, Lanie and Isabelle decide not to talk about what happened but Lanie thanked her for doing it with her even if she does not believe in it. Lanie’s grandmother sees the board inside her room and made her promise to stop trying to contact the dead...and she did. However, Pete starts seeing the message ‘Hi Friend’ written on the wall of a creepy tunnel he normally passes by while biking; while Isabelle sees the message written in the windshield of her car; Trevor gets a message, too, etched on his desk; Lanie and Sarah meanwhile gets a visit from a spirit in their own home who was banging doors and just freaking them out, when the noise subsides and they get out of the closet they hid in, they see the same cryptic message on their laptop screen.

The friends decide that maybe it was Debbie’s way of trying to reach them and so they use the board again to ask her why she had been sending ‘Hi Friend’ messages. This time, however, they start asking Debbie if she killed herself and they find out that she did not but someone else did. Pete decided to ask a question he knew Debbie would know and it made them realize that it was not truly Debbie they were talking to but someone named DZ...the spirit that even Debbie contacted when she played the board by herself. Lanie decided to look into the ‘eye’ or glass window of the ‘planchette’ and she sees DZ’s spirit, a young girl with her mouth sewn shut. Then the board spells out ‘RUN’, ‘SHE’S COMING’, ‘MOTHER’. So Lanie looks into the eye once again and sees a woman with a gaping mouth and the board flies up from the table. They scream and run from the house vowing not to play the board again. But Sarah was fearful that maybe they started something like what Debbie did and may also end up dead.

Lanie begins to investigate what happened to Debbie and she discovers a USB with some sort of a video diary in it. Lanie discovers that Debbie found an antique Ouija board while cleaning up their attic and she broke the cardinal rule of never playing alone. That same night, Isabelle is killed by the same spirit that haunted Debbie and which possessed her as she was flossing her teeth. Her mouth gets sewn shut with the floss and then banged her head on the sink, killing her. The guidance counsellor starts to talk to Lanie to teach her how to cope with loss but she brushed him off saying he had no idea what they were going through. Lanie insists that they did not need his help and she doesn’t know who could help them at all.

Lanie decides to talk to Pete and Trevor who seem mad at her for making them play the Ouija and she admits she would never forgive herself for unknowingly causing Isabelle’s death. She was able to convince Pete to go with her to Debbie’s house and she goes up into the attic and finds a box that includes pictures of a mother with two daughters. Before she was able to go down, though, a presence made itself felt to her and she sees a shadow of someone in there. Through further internet research, they learn about a missing girl named Doris Zander who lived in Debbie’s house in the 50s. The mother was the suspect in her mysterious disappearance while the other sister murdered her mother and was taken to a mental institution. They search for and find Paulina, Doris’ sister, in the asylum and Lanie learns that their mom was a medium. She shared with Lanie that their mother used the Ouija board in her séances and Doris was her vessel for the spirits. But something went wrong and their mom went insane as she cannot turn the spirits off so she sews Doris’ mouth shut to keep the spirits from talking. She also admitted that Doris was still inside the house and that’s why she had to kill her own mother.

Paulina also learned that Lanie and her friends used a spirit board that was why they were able to open a channel to the spirit world that awakened their mother and Doris as well. Paulina told Lanie about a secret room in the basement of their house where she thinks their Mother hid Doris’ body. They were told to cut the stitches from Doris’ mouth and pray that Doris can deal with their mother. She told Lanie not to go alone as she won’t be strong enough to fight the spirits. Lanie went with Trevor, Pete and Sarah but Trevor was attacked first by the spirit’s shadow, Pete ran after to save him and the door sealed shut behind them. Lanie continued on to a small opening to get to the secret room and proceeded to cut the stitches from her mouth. Doris was able to overcome her mother’s spirit so Lanie and her friends are now safe. Then, when Pete gets home she sees Debbie in his room who transforms into Doris and kills him.

Laine goes to Paulina to ask why Pete still died when they did everything she asked them to do. She soon realized that Paulina lied to her and it was their mom who was preventing them from using the board. It was Doris who was evil and they helped Paulina to set her free. They approach their grandmother who tells them that they have to destroy both the board and the girl’s body. They seek Trevor’s help who arrives at Debbie’s house early but is killed by Doris by drowning him in the pool. Sarah and Laine go on to the basement and they light up the furnace but Doris takes Sarah away so Laine plays the board alone, to call Doris out. Doris appears and twists her arm, trying to possess her but Debbie arrives to save her friend and while they were busy Sarah takes Doris’ body out and throws it into the furnace. Doris spirit is finally banished and she bursts into ashes. In the end, Lanie and Sarah talk about missing their friends and moving on but when Lanie goes into her room she finds the planchette and she picks it up and peers into the eye but we are not shown what she sees as the movie ends there. Creepy ending, really but it just means that someone else is out there. Overall, I guess the story is kinda spooky as it is based on a creepy board game and though the jump scares are quite predictable, it delivers just the right amount of fright factor for the kids who watched it with me.

KITCHEN MISADVENTURES – CHICKEN PATOLA IN MISUA SOUP

This next recipe that I made for our dinner is one that is quite easy to make because all the ingredients were already pre-cooked. I had some time to spare when we arrived home from the office since the hubby had to go off somewhere to finish an errand for his boss. So I followed (a bit) the recipe I got from one of my fave food bloggers, Connie. For complete instructions and ingredients, head over to her site at Casa Veneracion.

I deviated a bit from her recipe since like I said earlier I had already pre-cooked most ingredients of this meal since I usually don’t have much time whenever I get home to cook. I used chicken breast meat from the bones that I pre-boiled and the stock reserved for the soup later on. This meat was sautéed with garlic and onions then patis was added. I also added some patola to give the dish some veggies. Then I poured in the chicken broth, let it boil, then covered and simmered for about ten to fifteen minutes. Lastly, I added the misua and continued simmering until the misua is cooked. Finally, before serving the soup, I adjusted the seasonings (salt, pepper, magic sarap) before bringing it to the dining table while it was still steaming hot.

THE WALKING DEAD SEASON 5 EPISODE 7 – CROSSED

This episode starts with Daryl back at the church which they are trying their best to fortify in order to make it safe for the ones they will be leaving behind when they head off to Atlanta to rescue Carol and Beth. Rick talks to Michonne as he was torn between wanting to stay to protect his kids and going off to save Carol. Michonne offered to go in his place but Rick vowed he owes much more to Carol. And so with one final hug goodbye to Judith, Rick and the others left Michonne, Karl, Judith and Father Gabriel at the church. Michonne and Karl proceed to nail the door shut as Father Gabriel who seemed to be on the verge of having a nervous breakdown (with all the blood and violence he had seen lately) was vigorously trying to scrub away the blood stains on his church floor as if making them clean again would make his memories of it go away.

Tyreese tries his best to talk to Sasha and draw her out but she keeps shutting him and everyone else out. Meanwhile, at the countryside Eugene is still passed out despite efforts of Maggie and Tara to revive him. Eugene remains immobile, just kneeling by the side of the road, obviously still enraged over the recent turn of events until Maggie points a gun at him to calm him down. Rick’s group make plans at an abandoned warehouse to retake their friends/hostages from the hospital. Rick initially planned to take the hospital silently but swiftly, killing anyone who gets in their way. But Tyreese suggested another, less violent way to lure Dawn’s cops out and take them as hostages then seek for an exchange with Dawn. Daryl sided with Ty on the plan and so Rick had no choice but to back down.

Back at the church, Karl tries to teach Father Gabriel how to defend himself but it seems he can’t really handle much violence so instead he excuses himself to lie down. Then, Beth overhears a cop talking to Dawn convincing her to let the new patient die because they just don’t have that much resource anymore. Beth decided to walk over and question whether the cop’s daily use and charging of his DVD is more important than saving one life. But Dawn gives in to the cop’s demand and orders Beth to turn off the machines and if Carol pulls thru on her own then she’s fine. When the cop left, Dawn berated Beth for talking as she had just ‘killed’ Carol. Dawn said she had no choice but to side with the cop and not with Beth. Instead, Dawn gave Beth the key to the drug locker so she would be the one to save Carol by herself. I guess this woman truly is crazy!

Glenn, Tara and Rosita head off to get some water at a nearby creek while Maggie stayed behind to keep watch over Abraham and Eugene. At the creek, while waiting for the water to get clear (as Eugene taught Rosita to do), she tells them the story of how they all ended up being together. They also managed to catch a fish in the river and bring it back to camp for them all to eat. Maggie covers up Eugene to keep the sun away then talks to Abraham to get over himself since they all lost something too when they all learned that there was no cure waiting for them in Washington. Beth was able to get the name of the drug she needs from the doctor then proceeds to get it with the help of some strawberries she gave to an orderly to make a distraction.

Rick and his group then carry out their plan to capture Dawn’s cops by making Noah as bait. They get two but before they can take them back to the warehouse, two more arrive to rescue them. The group gets separated and Daryl gets faced with one of the mean cops and as he lay down on the ground being choked to death, he used a zombie head to take his opponent down. Then Rick arrives but instead of just letting Rick kill the guy he prevailed upon Rick to save the cop saying three hostages are better than two. I guess Daryl had changed from being the guy who would shoot first and ask questions later. The group head back with their hostages to the abandoned warehouse and they craft a plan together with the cops where they learned that some of them are already planning to usurp power from Dawn and were unsatisfied with her leadership. One of them, named Bob, offered to help Rick’s group as he claims to have known Dawn for eight years.

Back at the church, Michonne makes one final check on Fr. Gabriel and tells him that there are just some things they (Rick’s group) need to do in order to survive. But Gabriel responds instead by taking out the floorboards in his room and sneaked out of the church. On his way out, he steps on a nail and limps out into the woods and chanced upon a female walker but as he was about to bash its head with a rock, he saw a crucifix on its neck and so he just left it there. Tyreese was finally able to get through to Sasha who freaks out when Bob’s shirt was ripped. Ty reminds her that it is OK to ask for help and she finally did respond by giving her brother a hug. But she was easily duped by one of Dawn’s cops who gave her a sad story about knowing one of the ‘walkers’ who had already melted to the street and so Sasha offered to help him shoot the walker out of its misery. Instead, he knocks her out and runs off presumably to warn Dawn about Rick and his group.

Despite the many quiet moments of this episode, I guess I still enjoyed it as it deviated from previous episodes that focused on only one group and their story. This time, all three groups were shown and we all got to know what happened to Abraham’s group who were on their way to Washington, Rick’s group who headed to Atlanta to rescue Beth and Carol, and the church group left behind with Fr. Gabriel sneaking off to God knows where. I just hope Gabriel finds whatever is coming for him outside of the church walls. It seems to be like his guilty conscience had been catching up on him lately and I just hope he doesn’t bring his bad karma on the other members of the group as well.

(photo grabbed from the AMC)

NEW TILES FOR KIT’S ROOM

During the weekend, we brought Kuya Ric with us (the guy who built our house in BP with the help of some pamangkins) so that Kit’s room would be finally tiled. Of late, it had become quite difficult to clean up his room since the dust had the tendency to accumulate underneath the vinyl tiles…so it gives him much reason not to clean hehehe. He started the task last Monday as it was already quite late when we got home. Then, the hubby decided to go on half day on that day so that he can also help out in putting in the tiles since it would be a bit difficult doing that by his lonesome as he would be the one cutting, grinding, mixing cement, bring it up and affixing the tile one by one. But by Tuesday, duty calls and so it was only Kuya Ric again that did the tiles but by then they had already done most of it naman na e…so that by Wednesday, when this photo was taken, the room is almost done, except for the few more tiles left near the door and the hubby said he can already do that by himself. I guess I should be thankful for the likes of Kuya Ric and for the fact that the hubby is such an all-around guy so that we are able to have such things done (almost DIY!) at such a cheap price! Next thing to do now is to paint his walls (he requested light grey so that it would not be too difficult to clean) and some new curtains (also in grey) to make his room look really nice!

LUNCH AT FRIULI TRATTORIA

Today an officemate treated me to lunch at one of the cool restos at the famous Maginhawa strip at Teacher’s Village. The restaurant’s name is Friuli Trattoria, and as its name suggests it is an Italian restaurant filled with my fave food of all – pasta and pizza! A quick search at Google reveals that its name came from a place in Northern Italy that is famous for growing grapes that is made into wine. The restaurant, on the other hand, is also famous, not for wine this time but for its delectable array of Italian food that not only tastes so good but is also quite affordable! Among the famous items in their menu are the ones we ordered for our lunch today – the Tre Formaggi (or the three cheese pizza-yum!), carbonara pasta (but of course!) and the toasted ravioli (which was quite good too!) I swear...my nitpicky daughter who hates pizza is gonna fall in love with this place (well she likes cheese kasi). I promise to bring her here one of these days and maybe by then I will get to taste their pesto pasta or angel hair putanesca and even their cheese sticks...oh my, so many possibilities! I can’t wait...meantime check out the pics of the food we ate.

EARLY GIFT FROM MY FAVE AUNT

I actually was able to get this gift over the weekend during our last family get-together at Oakwood hotel but then I forgot to post pictures. The gift itself was left by my aunt since last month pa, before she left for Cebu. It wasn’t really new since she bought it for her Samsung tab, figured she didn’t like it and decided to give it to me. Well, lucky for me that she didn’t like it since I had been looking for a tab cover for ages...I had initially wanted something like Papa’s tab cover (that he was able to buy from a mall in Makati) but when I saw an Ipad with a folding cover that can be used as a stand, I figured I wanted something like that too...and guess what, this was the cover that my aunt didn’t want...woot! woot! So now I have one for myself! Thanks Auntie!

THE WALKING DEAD SEASON 5 EPISODE 6 – CONSUMED

For tonight’s episode of TWD, the focus this time was on Carol. It starts with her leaving the prison and Rick seeing her off after revealing to him how she killed the other prisoners who were then sick with the plague. After she left, she was seen crying by the roadside, consumed with guilt (as the episode title suggests) but she easily picks herself up and settles into some form of existence living on her own. She didn’t seem to live very far away as she was still able to see the smoke rising from the prison and sees that it had been burned and razed to the ground.

Then, the scene shifts to the present with Daryl and Carol going off in the car (Season 5 Episode 2) to follow a vehicle with a white cross (similar to the one that got Beth). They decide to follow the car and find out where Beth was. Soon the vehicle stops and they see two cops get out of the car but when they start the car again, they had run out of gas and so they find someplace safe to settle in for the night. They find a center for abused children with bunkbeds and after a bit of talking about starting over, they hear something and encounter an adult walker with some child walkers silhouetted in the door of another room. They decided not to kill them off but the next day when Carol woke up she finds Daryl burning bodies (I guess they’re of the walkers from last night)...it’s like a flashback of Tyreese and Carol burying the bodies of the girls from Season Four.

The next day, Daryl and Carol leave the center and enter Atlanta hoping to encounter the car with the cross once again. They enter what looks to be a carpark building where Noah was holed up but Carol and Daryl don’t notice and instead proceeds to the highest office window in the building to try and find the cross in the car. They look down into the desolate city and wonder what happened to the world. Carol finally admits what happened to the girls with her and Tyreese and Daryl admits they need to forget and start over. Daryl then sees an ambulance van with the same cross on the back windows and so they decide to go over there and find out where it’s from as it might lead them to Beth. On their way out, they run into Noah and he manages to get Carol’s gun and Daryl’s crossbow. He lets out a few walkers and escape then Carol wants to shoot him but Daryl stops her since he was just a kid.

Daryl and Carol proceed to the white van with the crosses that they spotted earlier and find medical equipment from Grady Memorial Hospital so they figured that’s where Beth may be. But soon the two are swarmed by walkers and cannot escape thru the road so they enter the ambulance once again and they just let the van fall...amazingly it fell upright and a few of the walkers fall dead after them. The two make plans after seeing that Grady Memorial is just three blocks away. They decide to find a good place to see/watch over the place and find out more about the people who have Beth. While doing their ‘stakeout’ Beth and Carol talk about their lives and how much they both have changed – Daryl from one who was like a kid with a crossbow and now he’s a responsible man. Carol revealed that she too had changed from a woman who waited for something to happen so she can be rid of her abusive husband into someone who can take action and make things happen for herself.

Soon they hear noises and go to investigate and they see Daryl’s crossbow stuck into some walker’s head. Then they heard gunshots and see Noah in a room fighting off some walkers by pushing a book case to a door. Daryl pushes him instead and lets the book case fall pinning him down. Noah asks for forgiveness and the two argue on whether or not to help him but Daryl insists that Carol almost died because of him and walks away. Then just as a walker was about to eat Noah, Daryl’s crossbow hits its mark and kills it.

They end up saving Noah and he warns them that they should leave at once since the people at the hospital probably heard the gunshots and would try to find them. Daryl then asks him if he saw a blond girl there and Noah tells them about Beth who was actually the one who helped him to get out. But as they were going to the next building (as Noah told them to do) a police car runs over Carol and Noah convinces Daryl to just let them take her so they can treat her injuries inside. I guess this is the scene before the one that showed Beth about to kill the doctor but stops when she sees Beth being wheeled inside the hospital (Episode 4). And I guess it also explains who Daryl brought back to the church after Bob died (Episode 3) ...it wasn’t Beth or Carol as I had hoped but Noah. I guess there wasn’t really anything much for him to do anymore but head back to Rick and plan on getting Beth and Carol back with Noah’s help.

(photo grabbed from the AMC)

KITCHEN MISADVENTURE SERIES – APPLE CINNAMON OVERNIGHT OATMEAL

Today, I made a variation of the normal banana-honey oatmeal breakfast that I usually have and since I was able to buy a few apples over the weekend, I decided to use them in my oatmeal. I was in a bit of a hurry and did not follow the recipe from Fiona Hayes that required a bit of cooking/caramelizing the apples with some brown sugar and I guess that was where I made my greatest mistake...oh well, maybe next time when I have a bit more time, I would do that method. I still enjoyed the apple and cinnamon oatmeal that I had though, albeit it was a lot less flavourful than if I had followed the required procedure.

SHOPPING AT GREENHILLS!

It’s that time of the year once again when we brave the crowds of shoppers to shop for clothes, shoes, and other must-haves to wear for Christmas parties or even to buy gifts for loved ones. This time, I decided to take my kids to experience a shopping mecca that I used to frequent when I was still working at Camp Crame – Greenhills! The usual place for our shopping was the SM Department Store and recently, the newly built Fairview Terraces beside it but this is the first time that I took them shopping in a place outside a mall and THEY...JUST...LOVED...IT!

Well, for starters Greenhills is actually similar to a tiangge but airconditioned and so the convenience of shopping was still there. But the shops were quite numerous and the place was still as huge as I remember it to be and my kids’ eyeballs just literally popped off their sockets upon seeing the seemingly endless rows and rows of shoes and clothes! Just too bad that I didn’t have all that money to spend – just enough for them to buy some shirts n shorts for Kuya, some blouses for my girl, a pair of shoes each, a bag and some spandex sandos and jogging pants for myself and a pair of shorts for Tatay, well he isn’t here e...serves him right for going home early! The kids vowed to save some money and return to this place to buy more clothes and shoes...I would too since I haven’t even ventured into the home section of Greenhills, since God knows I would probably go crazy in there! We promised to come back next year with more money to splurge! I just wonder if we could ever make our way to Divisoria one of these days...

FAMILY STAYCATION AT OAKWOOD PREMIERE

It had been quite some time since our last staycation at a hotel as a family , I guess the fact that my step-mom had retired from Sofitel made some difference huh? But this time around, they decided to try Oakwood and though I am not really sure why but I guess they have someone here who can easily set them up and also get a discount hehehe... But the location was just fine with me as it was just near Ortigas and we did not have to take a cab like in Sofitel but just walked there from Robinson’s Ortigas. We left for Oakwood when we finished the laundry at around 4pm na and got there at around 7p.m., just in time to have dinner.

The rooms were quite nice and we had one to ourselves that had 2 beds and a very nice bathroom. I guess this is one thing that I like most about hotels, their uber clean bathrooms that had my dream glass doors. Then, the other room (the master bedroom) had a huge king-sized bed and a small divan beside it where my sister shall be holed in for the night. Their bathroom is quite something too since it had a bathtub with a TV where one can watch while relaxing in the tub – quite the life huh! There was another room, I guess for my half sister and her family but I was unable to take pictures of it na... The place we rented had a very big dining area and sala with a very modern kitchen and what’s more – a laundry room where one can wash clothes!

We settled in comfortably for the night, after having dinner and blowing cake (for the November birthday celebrants). Then, the next day, I realized one more reason why I and the rest of the kids are starting to love Oakwood premiere...it had a gym that we can use for free and a huge pool that the kids totally loved! Now I guess the kids won’t start whining about missing Sofitel hehehe. What is even better is that because of its location, we can easily leave to go to the mall (unlike Sofitel that required cabs or own cars) and Greenhills! Well, that’s what I promised the kids when I told them that we can leave early the next day and not wait for Papa (who was playing golf at nearby Camp Aguinaldo) anymore to return so they could experience Christmas shopping at the only airconditioned tiangge in PH. (The shopping experience shall be the subject of my next post.) Here's hoping we will be seeing more of Oakwood soon!

PAINTING THE ROOM WITH BLUE SKIES

The hubby went on leave for his birthday and on the two days that he stayed at home, he decided to paint our bedroom...well, technically it was not our bedroom anymore since it had been appropriated by our daughter as hers. In fact, her cabinet had already been moved inside the room and stands alongside mine to make some sort of a walk-in closet for our things, to still give her some sort of privacy even if we are dressing up. Furthermore, she already filled the back of the cabinets with posters of her favourite boy and girl bands. So I guess she has claimed it already now as hers. We decided to just paint the walls white and then just the ceiling would be painted a slight blue tint or even a dark blue one to mimic the night sky...after that we planned to put in some glow in the dark stars so that come night time, the room would be filled with stars in the sky.

But when I got home yesterday, I was quite surprised to see that the paint did not really go as we planned. What he placed on the ceiling was the ghastly blue of a clear blue sky, not light like the dawn when the sun is just rising or dark like the night as I had wanted. He says, he was unable to control the amount of blue paint that he stirred in with the white and it was too late to take it back. So, to balance it up a bit, my daughter and I decided to just put in some white puffy clouds to cover the very striking blue hue. I downloaded some pictures from the web and even watched videos on how to make/paint clouds in walls and ceilings and they seem easy enough...I just hope we would be able to do it as we had envisioned it to be...here are pictures of rooms with some clouds that we want to incorporate, let’s just hope that everything goes well as planned.

KITCHEN MISADVENTURES – CHICKEN ASADO

This is another easy dish that already made last year (it’s in the archives around February) but this time around I decided to use chicken fillets – my favourite chicken part nowadays - a real blessing to harassed moms like me who are forever hurrying with cooking breakfast and baon. I pre-cooked (meaning boiled) the chicken last night in soy sauce, oyster sauce, brown sugar, anise, ginger, onion, garlic, some salt and pepper. Then this morning when I awoke, I just fried the chicken strips together with its marinade, added honey and sesame oil and let the liquid dry up a bit then voila! Delicious chicken asado that my kids and even the hubby liked! Thank you again Dennis! You may view his complete and easy to follow recipe at his website (Mga Luto ni Dennis @ blogspot.com)

THE WALKING DEAD SEASON 5 EPISODE 5 – SELF HELP

Tonight’s episode focused on the group that left on the bus with Sgt. Abraham Ford. It showed the romantic angle between Abraham and Rosita as Rosita touches Abe’s orange hair and offers to give him a haircut tonight. In Self help, we get to know more about Abraham not just the fact that he had a military background and had a borderline fanatic mission to get Eugene to Washington. Tara then talks to Eugene, too about getting his hair cut but he refused saying he prefers his hair as it is – shaped like a mullet and all. She chides him for his refusal teasing that his hair may be his source of power after all, just like Samson from the Bible...then suddenly the bus flips over and bursts into flames.

Next scene shows a flashback of a younger Eugene brutally killing a guy with a tin can in his hand. It seems they were inside a grocery store and the can was what came in handy in killing about four or five men that we see sprawled all over the floor. Then the scene reverts back to the present (a bit confusing, at first but you would soon realize that the flashback scenes are a bit misted and hazy so you can easily distinguish them from the present) and the group of Glenn, Maggie, Tara, Rosita, Eugene, and Abraham are slowly getting up and saw the bus was burning so they need to get out and fight walkers waiting for them outside. Tara covers Eugene and provides him with a bladed weapon before they step out of the bus telling him that now is the time to be brave. When they got off the bus, Eugene sees everyone busy battling walkers and when he sees one going after Tara, he bravely sticks his knife at the back of its neck – finally he was able to kill one!

When the group finished battling the walkers who came upon them, they get into an argument over whether they should continue with the journey to D.C. or head on back to the church. But Abraham insisted that they need to move forward, saying they can’t turn back and so they did not despite Eugene’s appeal that the church was just 15 miles back. The group start walking ...meantime, another flashback and Abraham is seen shouting/looking for a woman named Ellen, probably his wife. He finds her at the back of the store, huddled behind a cash counter obviously frightened with some children (maybe their kids?)

Then, the scene reverts back to the present and the group is seen entering what seems to be a book store or a library as their shelter for the night. Tara gets water from a toilet and boil it with a makeshift fire using some of the library’s books for fuel while someone distractedly hums in the background...I wonder whose voice it was (Abe’s maybe?) Then Rosita, bandages up Abraham’s wounds and afterwards declares he would be making one final sweep of the area. He chanced upon Glenn who was looking out a window and the entire scene was done almost in darkness (I guess they don’t have electricity anymore?) He thanks Glenn for believing in him, that they have a chance to save the world. The two say their goodnights then and Abe heads off to sleep with Rosita while Glenn stays on as first watch.

Next scene shows Abraham and Rosita making love and they make fun over the fact that Eugene is watching them again (so they knew it was not the first time) she also says he was in the ‘Self-help’ section, an obvious pun and reference to the episode’s title. Then, Tara came and catches him watching them...and justifies that he enjoys watching the female form. Tara tells him instead that she was looking for him to say thank you, for saving her life back at the bus. Eugene tried to downplay the incident but Tara insist that he can do it – be brave and save others not just himself. But Eugene, obviously torn by guilt admitted to Tara that he purposely rigged the bus to crash so it would slow their progress to D.C. He admits that he fears he is only valued because of his capability to cure the disease but Tara insists that it was not how they view him, or anyone in Rick’s group for that matter. They protect each other because that’s what friends do, that’s how things between them work. Tara agreed to protect his secret but they had to move on.

Glenn sleeps beside Maggie and Maggie tells him about feeling guilty, leaving their friends behind at the church. But Glenn justifies they need to stay positive as their mission will change everything. Flashback again to Abraham who confronts his wife, telling her he they are safe now, that he stopped them, they do not need to be scared anymore. But the wife and kids seem deathly afraid of him, cowering in fear and looking at him like he is some sort of a monster. At the present time, Rosita looks at his wounds and they seem to be healing well. She suggests that they stay on for another day at the library so they could rest more and recover strength for their mission but Abe gets angry at her. Maggie walks in and says the same thing so Rosita flips and choose to side with Abraham. They need to keep going and in fact they already have a vehicle with fresh water available – a firetruck just outside their window.

The group proceed to check out the truck and luckily it starts! But moments later as they pull out the engine suddenly shuts down then a tire rolls out from the open fire station door and soon more walkers come out and the group once again start smashing heads and slicing necks. Then, Eugene gets up on the firetruck and hoses down the rotting walkers with water so that they are cut in half and can’t move to kill them. (that’s a whole lot of water wasted but I guess it made some plus points for Eugene) Then, another flashback scene with Abraham waking up to find his wife and kids gone and a note left in the cash register, ‘Dont try to find us’.

Back to present, and the group is on the road again but the firetruck broke down once again. Abraham is trying to fix it, humming once again (so I guess it was him humming last night) while Eugene is reading a book at the back of the truck. Maggie comes over to talk to him, telling him that ‘you’re not the person people think you are.’ Maggie thinks he may actually be a survivor but he lets others believe otherwise. Their chat is interrupted by a stench that they smell and as they walked on down the road they soon realize where it was coming from – thousands of walkers on the road and in the farm fields ahead. Glenn advised that they take a detour but still Abraham won’t have it. Rosita refused to stand by him and sided with everyone else. Abraham grabs Eugene and walks off with him. The group rushes in to stop him with Glenn almost getting into a lopsided fistfight with the gigantic Abraham Ford until Eugene finally breaks, shouting that he’s not a scientist!...That he does not know how to stop it...that he lied about everything.

The group could not believe it... he says he was just smarter than most people and that he just felt the need to go to D.C. where the chances of survival are higher. Rosita pointed out that many people died trying to get him to D.C. He admits being a coward and tried to slow the group down at first but as they came closer he suddenly became fearful and knew he must now tell the truth as he was already screwed either way. He continues to explain himself but Abraham cuts him short by punching him repeatedly in the face. Eugene falls to the ground and as the group try to save him, Rosita puts himself between Abraham and Eugene to prevent him from inflicting more damage. Abraham heads a little further on the road, falls on his knees and sobs.

Another flashback episode is shown with Abraham trying to find his wife and kids and finding them out on a road, killed by walkers. He is devastated and shown kneeling once again this time in an attempt to end his own life. As he was about to shoot himself with his own gun, Eugene comes running screaming for help. Abraham stands up, takes down the walkers and walks off. Eugene follows him to thank him, and to tell him that he can’t leave since he has a very important mission. So I guess, in a sense, it was Eugene who gave him the reason to continue living. This episode shows us that Abe’s temper and violent ways were the reasons his family stayed away from him... this is the same reason provided for in the comics but what was not clear in this episode was the reason why he killed those men in the grocery store. Actually, in the comics (Issue 58), it was because those men raped his wife, I guess, they did not want to include again another issue of rape in the TWD TV series...so unlike in the comics where even Michonne was raped by the Governor when she was captured.

This ‘Self help’ episode actually tells the viewers how low people would go to ‘help themselves’ to survive – whether by eating the flesh of fellow humans, or allowing other cops to rape women just to keep them on a leash, or joining a band of thugs like the Governor, or turning away your own flock to save your own skin, or lying/making up a story about knowing how to save the world in order to manipulate others to protect you. In the comic (Issue 67) Eugene was discovered by Rick himself when he found the walkie talkie without batteries and he made Eugene finally confess that he was not really a scientist but a high school science teacher. It was also in this same issue whe the group meets Aaron, the guy who would be introducing them to another community just like Woodbury but this time headed by an old man...I am not sure if they will be using these loop also in the TV series. I just wonder what happens to Abraham now that he has lost his reason to live...or to Eugene for that matter, is he dead from Abe’s beating? But I don’t think we’d find out soon as next week’s episode seems to be about Carol and Daryl – well, at least one cliff-hanger question left in Episode 3 will be answered...who was with Daryl in the bushes at the church.

(photo grabbed from AMC)

TATAY'S BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

Today is Tatay's birthday and we celebrated simply at home surrounded by relatives with good food and fun-filled kwentuhan...here is the pic of the food we shared, of course, I did not cook any of it hehehe...suffice it to say I was just there to give moral support to his sisters who got busy with the cooking. Happy birthday Tay!

THE WALKING DEAD SEASON 5 EPISODE 4 – SLABTOWN

This episode is all about Beth – what happened to her ever since she was taken by whoever it was riding in a car with a cross. The episode begins with flashbacks of Daryl and Beth together up to the final night where she was taken by some unknown people. Then it fades to Daryl’s voice who was asked if Beth was dead and he answered – she’s just gone. Now we find out that Beth was indeed taken by some people and is now waking up and a clock is shown ticking (5:20) maybe a reference to Season 5 Episode 4? She bangs on her door which was locked and when she hears someone coming in, she uses her IV needle as a weapon. A female cop (Officer Dawn) who runs the place and a doctor (Dr. Stevens) walk in and inform her that she is at a hospital near Atlanta – the Grady Memorial Hospital. They tell her they saved her as she was surrounded by walkers near the side of the road. Beth asked about Daryl but Dawn said that she was alone, had a fractured wrist and if they had not come to save her. She’d be one of them right now, so she owes them (or so she says...how’s that for expecting gratitude)

Then, Dr. Edwards takes Beth on a tour of the hospital and explains to her that they pull the plug on a patient if they do not show signs of improvement after a few days, to save valuable resources. She starts repaying her ‘debt’ to the group that saved her by working as a nurse, pretty much like a prison but without guarantee of a parole. Later on she helps take care of the dead and learns that the dead are pushed down an elevator shaft because they never go out, only when they need to. Beth even hears the sound of some of the walkers in the basement (they call them rotters, by the way) At the hospital canteen, where Beth went down to get food for the doctor, she meets the cop (Gorman) who apparently saved her. Beth just remembered that she was fighting a walker at the time then everything went black. (I think, maybe the creepy cop hit her on the head as he seemed a bit slimy to me) Before she left, Gorman said that it’s courtesy to show some appreciation (for saving her, I guess) since everything cost something, right? (I just wonder why all these people think that Beth owes them anything for saving her at all!)

Beth sees another orderly who she learns is Noah, the janitor-slash-errand boy of Officer Dawn. Beth brings the doc his food and while listening to a record he tells her that he feels bored. Beth countered that if he feels safe enough to be bored then he is lucky. He is also lucky enough to get to eat guinea pigs for lunch. When asked if Beth had eaten, she says that she would rather not eat as the more she gets the more she owes (and she doesn’t want that if she intends to leave). He lets Beth taste the guinea pig and she takes just one bite. Then, a new guy is wheeled in, someone who fell from a building and Dawn wants the doc to save him. But the doc says they are just wasting resources and when the patient seemed impossible to save due to his internal bleeding, she slaps Beth (but why?) Beth later on finds out that she had always been hot-tempered and takes it out on others (herself now included). The doc also advised her to change her clothes/scrubs as Dawn wants things to be always clean and neat. As she was dressing, she finds a green lollipop tucked in her blouse, apparently from the friendly orderly Noah.

Then, she sees another ‘nurse/orderly’ (named Joan) wheeled in and her arm amputated because she was bitten while trying to escape. Joan admits to Beth in not so many words that she was being sexually abused by Dawn’s police officers (in particular Gorman, the sleazeball eyeing Beth). Afterwards, Beth talked to Noah and she asked him why Joan tried to escape when she could work off her debt and just leave afterwards. But Noah says, it doesn’t really work that way. He realizes that Dawn could have saved his Father but since he was bigger and could fight back, she did not and instead opted to save skinny weak Noah...or so she thought since Noah is confident that he could escape this place and go back to his mother in Richmond, Virginia. Dawn later talks to Beth and explains that she does what she does (turn a blind eye to everything else) to keep her officers happy, since if they are happy, they work harder to keep everyone safe. She gives them food, clothes, security, shelter...but nothing is for free. Everyone has to make sacrifices for it will all be worth it when they are rescued. But Beth believes otherwise, that no one is ever coming to rescue them.

Next scene shows Beth searching for her lollipop and she soon finds it out it had been stolen by Gorman who starts eating it then forces it into her mouth (ewwww!) Then the doc comes in and tells Gorman to leave Beth alone. Gorman insists that Beth should have been his...and the doc countered that nobody is Gorman’s, not even Joan. The doc even threatened him in case he gets sick and Gorman said he’ll get treated by somebody else – not just you. Dawn called him just then and he left but without leaving a sleazy wink for Beth...creepy guy really. Beth asked the Doc why he stays and the doc explains his stand by showing him the walkers/rotters in the basement and tells her a story about how they started in the hospital, how a guy named Hanson used to run things then he made bad calls and Dawn was in charge. They learned to make compromises and he reasons that even though things are bad with Dawn, it is much better than being outside (at the mercy of the walkers/rotters) but Beth refused to believe so and asks if he calls this living...

Then, the doc asked Beth to administer some meds to another guy (clozapine) before she calls it a day but inside the room with Noah, the guy suddenly had seizures and dies. Noah takes the blame for it saying he must have unplugged the ventilator and subsequently got beaten up by Dawn. Beth explains to the Doc that she did as he asked and learned that the doc said clozepam not clozapine. Later on as Beth was cleaning Trevitt’s room, Dawn came in and told her she knew Noah was lying to cover up for her. But Dawn still had to beat Noah because he choose to sacrifice himself for her...and Dawn thinks such sacrifice is not a worthy cause at all. She thinks Beth is nothing but part of the system inside the hospital and outside she would either be dead or somebody’s burden.

After the beating, Beth and Noah decide to escape thru the elevator shaft but first Beth has to find the key to the elevators inside Dawn’s office. While Noah kept an eye for Dawn, Beth snuck into her office to find the key but in the process she also found Joan who apparently committed suicide (by opening up her amputated wound and bleeding to death). Then, she also found Trevitt’s ID and learned why the Doc deliberately gave her the wrong meds. But before she can hastily escape from Dawn’s room, Gorman steps in and catches her. He proceeds to sexually assault her and Beth bides just enough time to make Joan turn then bashes Gorman in the head and when he fell Joan did her thing and rip up his throat. Beth then casually walks outside and tells Dawn that Joan was looking for her and she saw Gorman and Joan head to her office. Noah and Beth then make their escape and go down the elevator shaft using blankets as a rope. As Noah was coming down, he almost got close to a walker and ended up falling down the elevator shaft and into the dead bodies, injuring his foot in the process.

The walkers get riled by the noise they were making and so Beth pulls out the gun she got from Gorman and started shooting. They make it out to the parking lot and start to run, in the background we see many black cars with crosses as more walkers come out and Beth starts shooting them all in the head (I guess her shooting skills improved due to Daryl’s tutelage). Noah limps behind her but Beth gets swarmed not just by walkers but by Dawn’s cops and as she is cuffed, Noah gets through the fence and she smiles meaning she is in a way glad that he escaped. Beth gets dragged back into the hospital and gets chastised by Dawn. Beth says Gorman got what he deserved since he attacks the girls they take in and she just lets him. She shouts to her that no one is coming to save them and that everything they do is for nothing! Dawn slaps Beth again and as the Doc was stitching her up Beth confronted the doc with the knowledge that he deliberately let her use the wrong meds to ‘accidentally’ kill Trevitt since he is a doctor too and he wants to continue being indispensable to Dawn...he had no choice, or so he says (so much for being a kind doc huh...I guess he too has his own agendas to protect). Beth takes a pair of scissors and was about to kill the doctor when a new patient was wheeled in and she sees that it is Carol.

The episode ends here and it just brought in more questions than it answered. For one thing, the hanging question in last week’s episode remains – who was with Daryl in the woods. At least we know for sure that it may not have been Beth or Carol since they are still both in the hospital...maybe Daryl and Carol made it to Grady hospital and Carol was ‘rescued’ (like the way they rescued Beth) then Daryl somehow met up with Noah who was limping out so I guess it must be Noah that he took back to the church to be treated. Or maybe Morgan? Arrrgh! I don’t think these questions may be answered soon since the next episode’s preview showed the story of Sgt. Abraham Ford and Glenn as they move towards Washington...I think they are getting back to the storyline of Season 4 where each episode shows the story of the different characters. I just hope the gang gets reunited soon as the story is just much more exciting when they are all on the road battling walkers together. In fact, this episode is not at all as exciting as the last three ones that started Season 5...oh well, at least we got to know what happened to Beth. And at least now we know she has Carol with her so she would have a better chance at breaking out of this hospital/prison with her help...go crush them CAROL!

P.S. I just wonder though what the term ‘Slabtown’ in the title refers to...also, I don’t think this episode is taken at all from the comic book as I don’t recall any character getting trapped/imprisoned inside a hospital filled with freaks...

(photo grabbed from the AMC)

KITCHEN MISADVENTURE SERIES – MAKING MY OWN TRAIL MIX

Yesterday, while I was at my mom’s house, I had a skype conversation with my sister and she commented that near where she lives there’s this store that sells all kinds of nuts and she was (at the time I was talking to her) munching on them as she thinks they are quite cheap there. I asked her if they do not cause an attack of her gout and she counters that almonds do not have as much uric acid as other forms of nuts. Hmmnnn...that got me interested and so today when I went out to the local pharmacy to buy some snacks, I saw some almonds but balked at the price tag of PhP87.00 for an 80 gram pack...WTH!@#$ And so I decided to buy some more ingredients for my snacks – like Kelloggs cornflakes, some raisins, a small pack of M&Ms, and cornick. True they cost a whole lot more than when I had stuck with just the almonds but then again when the total cost of PhP239.00 was consumed by myself for 7 days as my mid-afternoon snack – that translates to roughly PhP34.00 per snack – which is not bad at all!!!

PAYING RESPECTS TO THE DEAD

This year, I decided to go a different path and instead of just staying at home at our house at BP for the All Saint's Day holidays, I decided to join my mother to visit her Tatay and Nanay's gravesite at Holy Cross Memorial Park at Novaliches. In previous years, the task to bring my mama to the cemetery fell to my eldest son, Myk but since he wasn't here anymore but already lives in Bacolod for the past two years, my mother had no one to take her...so this year I went with her. We were able to visit not just the gravesite of Tatay and Nanay but also Mama Fe's though it was quite a circuitous route that we took and we got a bit lost (in translation, hehehe). Next year, we hope to be able to visit Ate Tess' grave too...

Mama's birthday

It's the eve of the Day of the Dead and my mom's birthday is still two days away but we decided to spend the day today with her at her house and ordered McDO takeout...why Mcdo? Well, not because of their fabulous chicken or their delicious fries (although I do love their fries better than Jollibee's) but because of their new McDonald's glasses! We got two different types of Mcdo BFF bundles and were able to get 6 new glasses...Yippee!

(photos grabbed from the McDonald's website)