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Harry Potter, Finally!

Published by Justine

I finally watched Harry Potter last weekend. This is a delayed reaction entry because I’ve been so busy with work ever since the month started and I’m going to become more busy next week because of audits so might as well just write about it now while I’m still free. Did I mention I’m going to work tomorrow, which is a Saturday? Yep.

After months of Hollywood movie deprivation in Indonesia (don’t ask, I didn’t have a clear idea of what went on all I know is Hollywood movies stopped being imported in this country), the first summer blockbusters they showed were Transformers 3 and Harry Potter. Oh boy, Harry Potter. I don’t even know where to begin. Years and years of reading the book, finally came to a close.. but not in my heart. I didn’t think I was going to cry because it usually only happens during sappy lovey dramas but I was wrong. I cried like hell. In the cinema. I bawled. I didn’t even want to be noisy because I didn’t wanna interrupt other moviegoers but I couldn’t help it! There was a point in my bawling where I couldn’t breathe anymore because I was all clogged up so I had to make this big noise of taking in everything and I think people looked, and some of them even chuckled. I was really embarrassed but I couldn’t help it. Even my best friends were laughing at me because that was their 2nd and 3rd time watching so they knew what was going to happen, but being the best friends that they are (and Potterheads) they still accompanied me.

I started crying somewhere in the Hogwarts scene, where basically everything epic started. My tears couldn’t stop falling.. right until the end. I couldn’t explain my emotions. Basically I’m a Potterhead.. but I’m not that hardcore. I read the books since 6th grade and loved it, always watched the movie in the first week of screening, most of the time with my friends, the last movies 6 and 7.1 with my family. Although I don’t really proclaim it to the world, but Harry Potter has definitely been a huge part of me for more than a decade of my life so I guess it’s no surprise either that the tears just couldn’t start falling down.

I also finally got to wear my DLM shirt! DLM (short for Dream A Little More) is a Harry Potter t-shirt business by a good e-friend of mine, Aia whom I’m known for a few years now. She turned her fangirling into something useful by making shirts which are Harry Potter inspired and I got mine all the way from the Philippines! I bought the shirt shaped into Harry’s lightning scar with all the spells written on it to form the lightning. My friends loved it!

Life Desserts: My Weekend

Published by Justine

A few hours into a new work week and before I start with work I decided to write about the weekend. On Saturday I had a good reunion with two of my best friends from uni especially with Caroline, whom I haven’t seen in almost 2 years (and also just resurrected her fashion blog!). To cut a long story short, everything which happened became water under the bridge and all of us couldn’t be happier at how things turned out. We met for lunch at Pesto.

Dress and belt by WAGW Cebu, shoes by CELINE Philippines (not to be mistaken with the French Celiné) and ASOS Tradition Colour Briefcase. I was pretty much supporting local Philippine brands in Jakarta that day, except for the ASOS bag. Even my accessories were a gift from a good friend back in Cebu, and the pearl coated bangles were from a tourist shop in Cebu as well.

I’m such a mini me compared to my friends especially Caroline who’s super tall and still wearing heels. She told us she wanted to pursue a career as a flight attendant, of course she got our full support and now she’s applying. Good luck!!

We wanted the whole day to stretch out without parting ways yet so we decided to proceed to the mall to do a bit of shopping. I got myself a MAC Cremesheen Lipstick in Modesty and Caroline and I bought matching cute synthetic two tone flats which are just the most comfortable to wear. I think one day we’re gonna wear it together, of course with different styles of clothing. We met a few friends in another cafe and had a few laughs then since Carol had another appointment, we left for yet another restaurant in the South for dessert, light dinner (yes dessert came first!) and drinks.


Speaking of desserts, I had one too many on Saturday. They were so good I forgot their names. I think I had a full Chocolate Mousse after lunch and another Hazelnut & Chocolate Mousse at night plus I also got to try Mille Feuille which are thin layers of pastry with cream and chocolate filling served with vanilla ice cream–heavenly! Dessert overload much?

I had a pretty great Saturday after a few weekends of laying low on alcohol. Lazy Sunday was spent catching up on feeds and reading One Day on my Kindle. The book is amazing so far, each chapter offers an insight to growing up and the best part is there’s a movie coming out soon, starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess who I think are just the right people to play Em & Dex respectively. I’ve been following a pattern with reading books based on growing up, just before One Day I read A Visit from the Goon Squad which was also great, albeit a little dark at times. I can’t wait to watch One Day the movie and I heard Goon Squad is going to be developed as an HBO TV Series so I can’t wait to see how that turns out too.

When I turned Twenty-Three

Published by Justine

This is an overdue entry because I turned 23 last May and I’m only writing about it now. I’m usually in denial when it comes to turning older because my mind and heart never is. I guess this is what they mean when they say, “age is just a number”.  I’ve always had awesome birthdays spent with friends and loved ones, a day where I am extra thankful for the things in my life that I have and a day where I can just be me, and get away with it.

The morning of my birthday, my mom and sister surprised me with mini balloons as soon as I woke up. Apparently humiliation from parents in this generation consists of uploading photos of you on Facebook on your birthday just as you have woken up with all the “morning glory”. I was thankful, nonetheless. My family is the best.

Because I was leaving for a short Singapore trip with my dad later that night, my usual birthday dinner party which have been this sort of yearly tradition I always had, turned into a late lunch instead. I always make sure I spend my birthday with people who matter in my life, and I’m even more grateful that they take the time out to spend it with me.

I wish I could gather all my friends from all over the world but it just isn’t the same anymore. As you get older and especially out of school, friends flock to different places and different continents. Ahh, life of a TCK. I was also lucky that my birthday fell on a Saturday, and last year it fell on a Friday so these two consecutive getting my friends together wasn’t really a big issue.

My friends surprised me with one of the yummiest cakes I’ve ever tasted and the funniest part was that they wrote “Vajengjay” instead of my name. It’s gross because it’s a made up word of animating the word vagina and the letter J but it’s a funny inside joke. We have all these never-ending inside jokes about human anatomy, definitely shows how old we are ;p When I found out what my cake said, I couldn’t help but burst into this HUGE laugh.

The afternoon was enjoyed with great food & drinks, great company and at the end of the day, if you have those plus a great family.. nothing else really matters anymore until you wake up and face the harsh realities of life again. That’s just a cycle which we all have to deal with. There were lots of things to be thankful for this year: getting a new job, having the best friends, a great summer vacation, a memorable summer lovin’ (although it had to end one way or another), my mom’s good health of being cancer-free and so many more things, no matter how big and small.

After the wine and dine it was time to go to the airport to spend 3 days with my dad in Singapore. It was sort of like a birthday vacation for us because his birthday is just two days after mine. 2011 has been really good to me so far and I hope it continues to be that way.

Write Play

Published by Justine

I was going through my old posts and remembering how expressive I used to be with my blogging, and pretty elaborate too. I may not have had perfect grammar and admirable wit, but I wrote, wrote and loved it. I blame Twitter and Tumblr. I stopped using WP because Tumblr was at its peak 2008-2009 and I didn’t really have anything much to say anymore because there were all these pretty photos I could describe. I also spew out about a hundred tweets a day (exaggeration) but I hardly blog anymore. Has advanced technology really reduced me to be a lazy thinker and writer? I used to look forward to blogging with a thousand ideas in my head so much! Unfortunately, I can’t say the same anymore.. so here I am again blogging about my lack of blogging skills which is starting to become so redundant already.

Speaking about writing, I actually have a screenplay that’s been in my hard drive for a while now. I think I started it about 2 or 3 years ago and it wasn’t till a few months ago that I discovered it again and continued the flow. The thing is, I don’t have a definite story. The first time I started with it I had the story in mind, but as time went on I couldn’t really see it going anywhere. I guess the reason why it’s taken so long for me to write it is because I’m still figuring out where to go with the story, and develop the characters to my liking. I’ve only ever let one person read it, and sometimes when I go through it I cringe because I don’t know if it’s even readable at all. This is a small excerpt from the file.. It’s been almost 3 years and I’ve only done 4 scenes. I’m not even sure if I’m doing it right, I’ve only learned some terminologies because I got into a phase where I was obsessed with screenplays and read the ones from all my favorite movies.

It’s basically about a strained friendship between two people, but as I want to develop the story I actually don’t know where I’m headed. Will it have a happy ending? Or will it be depressing and end up with both of them dead in a car accident? I guess I’ll just have to go with time on this.

Friday Nights

Published by Justine

..mean a whole lot different to me now. I used to look forward to Fridays because it would be the time when I’m able to go out but now I look forward to it so I can sleep until Saturday. I go so hard on weekdays and it is so draining that I don’t mind even mind anymore that my Friday nights are spent chilling by myself and wasting away as opposed to usually going out to dinner or the occasional drinks. Even as I write this entry on a Friday night (midnight just struck to Saturday) I’m perfectly at peace listening to Iron & Wine’s Such Great Heights followed by Elliot Smith’s Whatever (Folk Song in C) because these are my go-to songs of happy melancholy loneliness solitude, if you know what I mean. Goodness gracious, how old am I?

We’re halfway through the year and once again time is going by too fast. The past 2 weekends have been spent going out with friends, drinking (soju bombs are my newfound love) and lots of Korean food (seriously, last week was a feast, and so was the other week) so I don’t really have plans for this weekend. All I’m thinking about is wanting to eat a burger. Going out consecutive weekends aren’t my thing either. I always like to reserve a weekend off just for myself and looks like tomorrow’s the day, unless of course the word burger comes up and I’m out of the house. It’s been too long!!

I wish I had photos to share but they’re all either ugly ones from my phone, having too much fun to care, or too drunk to look at (not really, my alcohol intake has been very very tame ever since I got back from my Philippine vacation). So here’s a photo of one of my many new purchases, OPI’s Black Shatter which I love very very much. As soon as I got it I took it out for a test drive. I want more!

Kk, off to sleep! Have a great weekend!